Newsletter XXXV 2023
August 27th to September 2rd
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Current news+ | Background knowledge |
Nuclear Power Accidents
This PDF file contains a list of known incidents from the various areas of the civil and military nuclear industry. Some of this information only came to the public in a roundabout way...
Excerpt for this month:
September 1, 1982 (INES 5) Chernobyl, USSR
September 3, 2017 (6. Atomic Bomb Test) Punggye-ri, PRK
September 5, 2008 (INES 1-3) Ascó, ESP
September 9, 2016 (5. Atomic Bomb Test) Punggye-ri, PRK
September 11, 1979 (INES 4 NAMS 3,4) nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
September 11, 1957 (INES 5 NAMS 2,3) nuclear factory Rocky Flats, USA
September 13, 1987 (INES 5) Goiânia, BRA
September 18, 1980 (Rocket fuel explosion) Damascus, USA
September 22, 1980 (INES 3 NAMS 1,6) nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
September 23, 1983 (INES 4) nuclear center Constituentes, ARG
September 24, 1977 (INES 3) Davis Besse, USA
September 26, 2013 (INES 2) Institute of Energy Caps, NLD
September 26, 1973 (INES 4 NAMS 2) nuclear factory Sellafield, GBR
September 29, 1957 (INES 6 NAMS 7,3) nuclear factory Mayak, USSR
September 30, 1999 (INES 4) nuclear factory Tokaimura, JPN
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We are looking for current information. If you can help, please send a message to: nuclear-world@reaktorpleite.de
2 September
Climate protection | Agriculture | Solar expansion
Solar package limits agriculture's contribution to climate protection
According to Hans-Josef Fell, co-inventor of the Renewable Energy Sources Act, agriculture could do much more to protect the climate than the federal government's solar package allows. He calls for a fixed feed-in tariff for solar power from the field and the abolition of the expansion cap.
[...] With this solar package in the fall, the Bundestag has another Herculean task ahead of it. In order to accelerate solar expansion as much as climate protection requires, it should be based on the following guidelines:
- No new lids. The cap for open spaces of 80 GW by 2030 must be removed from the draft law.
- A fixed feed-in tariff for agricultural PV, parking lot PV, floating PV and moor PV should be introduced instead of forcing them into crippling tenders that are hostile to public energy.
- Introduction of incentives for system-friendly investments on site with a mix of all renewable energies, storage and sector coupling. A combined power plant tariff could achieve this.
This is the only way the political will can be implemented: to create a steep, exponential expansion of renewable energies, especially photovoltaics. This would also be the essential contribution to climate protection in order to contain the rapidly progressing overheating of the earth. Farmers and associations, especially the powerful farmers' association, should now work accordingly.
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CCS technology
Now off to the ground
Advisors to Federal Economics Minister Habeck support the underground injection of CO2. New protests against CCS projects are planned - then probably also against the government Greens.
It's been a good ten years. At that time, protests in northern Germany led to a virtual ban by the black-yellow federal government on CCS technology - the large-scale technology in which the greenhouse gas CO2 is pressed into deep layers of the earth in order to banish it from the atmosphere.
Opponents of the CCS projects, especially in Schleswig-Holstein, feared leaks, artificial earthquakes and risks to groundwater.
[...] Until now, the technology has also been very controversial in politics. The Greens and the SPD in particular spoke out against it, but the Union and FDP also considered it unenforceable because of the protests - hence the restrictive law of 2012. The wind has now changed...
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Exit strategy for Ukraine: “Achieving a just and lasting negotiated peace”
Self-defense and peace are not a contradiction, say prominent authors of an appeal. They make a suggestion for a way out of the conflict. How they justify their stance.
[...] Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression on February 24, 2022, Ukraine has been waging a legitimate defensive war that is concerned with its survival as a state, its national independence and security.
This statement applies regardless of the democratic and constitutional quality and the constitutional reality, and also regardless of the much more complicated history and the equally more complicated global political context of the war.
However, the legitimacy of armed self-defense on the basis of Article 51 of the UN Charter does not release the government in Kiev and the states that support it from the obligation - not least towards their own people - to exercise common sense, to resist the increase in violence and Not to give in to destruction and to politically promote the achievement of a just and lasting peace. Even during the war - and especially during it - the constant effort to find a diplomatic solution must not be allowed to wane...
1 September
Neukölln | Neo-Nazis | Right-wing extremists | State Security
Neukölln Investigative Committee:
“There had to be something up”
In the Neukölln investigative committee, the former head of EG Resin doesn't mince his words. The head of the LKA is also heard as a witness.
BERLIN taz | It is the first meeting of the Neukölln investigative committee after the summer break. The former head of the Resin investigation group, Michael E., took the witness stand on Friday afternoon. The 55-year-old is the type of official who doesn't mince his words. The official said he had already been familiar with the topic of right-wing extremism for 27 years when he was appointed head of the Resin investigation group at the State Security Service in 2017.
The investigative committee in the House of Representatives is looking into a possible failure of the authorities to investigate the right-wing extremist series of attacks in Neukölln, which dates back to 2009. Although countless investigators were involved in the attacks and the suspects are known, no one has been convicted for the arson attacks to date. The process is reopened.
Before the EG Resin, which was part of the state security department, the EG REX, which was attached to a police department, conducted the investigation until 2016...
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Electricity price | industrial electricity price | Electricity tax
Comment: Industrial electricity price brake is unnecessarily complicated
Parts of the government want to subsidize electricity down to cents for particularly energy-intensive companies. There were much simpler ways.
Germany is one of the countries with the highest electricity prices in the world - even if you take purchasing power into account. But not all sectors suffer equally: large consumers from the chemical or aluminum industries, for example, more than IT companies. So is it only logical to subsidize the price of electricity to just a few cents for those affected, as the Greens, parts of the SPD and some federal states are demanding?
Not necessarily. There is always a certain arbitrariness attached to such measures. Where exactly do you draw the line? What about companies that fall just below this limit - possibly because they invested in energy-saving technology in a timely manner? And how long should the subsidies last? They are actually only intended as a "bridge" until renewables have largely pushed expensive gas-fired power plants out of the market. But experience shows that once subsidies have been introduced, it is difficult to withdraw them.
[...] But there is an even simpler way: lowering taxes on electricity for everyone. Private customers would also benefit from this. Although high electricity prices provide an incentive to save more energy, they also stand in the way of the shift from fossil to renewable sources - for example in cars and heat pumps. Whether these are profitable depends crucially on the price difference between electricity and fossil fuels. But instead of ensuring an appropriately small gap, the governments are again relying on little measures, for example in the form of purchase bonuses for electric cars. If it were to lower electricity taxes and raise CO₂ prices, the federal government could save on many subsidy programs in return.
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fossil | Subsidies | industrial electricity price
Greenpeace criticizes "billions in gifts" to the fossil energy industry
Greenpeace is convinced that the federal government is standing in its own way in the fight against climate change. The biggest hurdle are the subsidies that Berlin pays for energy-intensive industries.
The environmental organization Greenpeace is calling for the billions in climate-damaging subsidies for German industry to be phased out. According to a study by the Forum for Ecological and Social Market Economy commissioned by Greenpeace, these inhibited the climate-neutral transformation. "Billions in the billions to the industry for cheaper fossil energy make it more expensive and block the climate-friendly change in the economy," says Bastian Neuwirth, climate and energy expert from Greenpeace.
According to the study, the state continues to spend significantly more on climate-damaging subsidies than on converting industry to a climate-neutral economy. It is said that the state awards climate-damaging subsidies worth 16 billion euros to industry every year. The largest part, around 10 billion, is attributable to relief in national and European emissions trading. In addition, fossil fuels would be favored in electricity production with 3,8 billion per year, and there would be direct energy tax relief of 2,2 billion. Due to the high energy consumption, industrial sectors such as iron and steel, chemicals and paper would be particularly favoured...
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cesium | Fallout | atomic bomb tests
Mystery of the radioactive wild boar solved
Why wild boars in Germany seem impossible to carry high amounts of cesium-137
Mysterious contamination: Many wild boars in Germany are unusually highly contaminated with radioactive cesium - their meat must not be eaten. Now analyzes reveal the surprising source of the radioactive contamination: the cesium does not come from Chernobyl, but from the atomic bomb tests of the 1950s. Although this fallout has disappeared everywhere else, it has accumulated in deer truffles, loved by wild boar - and thus entered the food chain.
The Chernobyl reactor catastrophe in 1986 also left its mark in Central Europe: To this day, mushrooms in some regions of southern Germany are contaminated with radioactive cesium-137 and other radionuclides from the fallout. The meat of wild animals was also more contaminated at first. Over time, however, this pollution subsided: the radioactive cesium was washed out by the rain, bound in minerals and transported deep into the ground. As a result, today only traces of this radionuclide are absorbed by plants and animals...
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Switzerland | closure | Mühleberg
Fuel unloading in Mühleberg completed
All of the nuclear fuel from the decommissioned Mühleberg nuclear power plant has been transported to the Zwilag interim storage facility in Würenlingen, according to the Swiss power plant company BKW. With the removal of the fuel, the first of three stages of the decommissioning of the power plant is completed.
The plant - a single 373 MWe boiling water reactor - was commissioned in 1972 and shut down on December 20, 2019. Dismantling began on January 6, 2020. However, it has only been considered finally out of service since September 15, 2020, when the operating license was replaced by a decommissioning order. Mühleberg is the first nuclear power plant in Switzerland to be decommissioned.
Mühleberg will be dismantled in three phases. The first phase lasts until all the fuel elements in the plant have been removed. The second phase ends with the lifting or clearing of the control zones, while in the third phase proof is provided that the facility no longer poses a radiological hazard...
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September 1, 1982 (INES 5) Chernobyl, USSR
Partial meltdown - fuel channels 62-44 were destroyed, irradiation of the personnel involved in the repair of the reactor. (Cost approx. US$1100 million)
Wikipedia
On September 1, 1982, a central fuel assembly was destroyed by overheating as a result of operator error. Significant amounts of radioactivity escaped, the radioactive gases reached the city of Pripyat. During the repair, several workers were exposed to a significantly excessive dose of radiation...
AtomkraftwerkePlag
On September 1st or 9th, 1982 (depending on the source) the first serious incident had already occurred. The central fuel element in reactor 1 overheated and was completely destroyed due to an operator error. Radioactive substances were released into the environment and spread through the plant and the industrial zone to Pripyat: iodine, krypton, xenon, tellurium and cesium. While repairing the damage, workers were exposed to increased radiation, several died...
31. August
Sweden wants to expand nuclear energy:
Nuclear power chaos in Sweden
The Environment Minister proudly announced “at least” ten new nuclear power plants. However, the governing coalition knew nothing about it.
STOCKHOLM taz | At 27, Romina Pourmokhtari is the youngest head of department Sweden has ever had. Sweden's climate and environment minister is currently making headlines. “At least ten” new conventional nuclear reactors should be built in Sweden and commissioned between 2030 and 2040, she recently announced at a press conference. This would triple the country's nuclear power production and roughly double the total power production. Which would cover the presumed need for 2045.
[...] The announcement, however, had a catch: the rest of the Swedish government knew nothing about it. The daily newspaper Aftonbladet first noticed that Pourmokhtari had apparently gone it alone. When one of their editors looked for the press release for those 16 new reactors last week, it had disappeared from the ministry's website without a trace -- and been quietly replaced by a new version. There was no longer any talk of 6 instead of the previous 20 nuclear reactors or of Pourmokhtari's announcement of three times as much nuclear power within XNUMX years...
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France | Uranium mining | Orano
Energy costs:
Why we pay dearly for France's nuclear power
The costs of France's nuclear power plants are constantly rising. Now Niger could also no longer be a uranium supplier. This also affects German electricity customers.
In France, the price of electricity could soon rise sharply. The coup plotters in Niger are threatening to hinder future uranium imports for French nuclear power plants. The neighboring country sources around a fifth of its uranium from the African country for its 56 nuclear power plants. As a former colonial power, the Paris government had always concluded advantageous supply contracts with Niger; the French company Orano controls three-quarters of the uranium deposits. The coup now jeopardizes these one-sidedly advantageous deals for French nuclear power.
This dependency also explains why France is currently opposing the putschists in Niger more vehemently than almost any other country. On Monday afternoon, President Emmanuel Macron emphasized in a speech to diplomats that the putschists' opponent, the West African community of states Ecowas, was unconditionally supported by France. Even in the event of possible military intervention...
30. August
Coup in Gabon:
The corrupt system Bongo
Gabon's extremely wealthy ruling family was closely intertwined with the former colonial power France. There is an investigation against them.
BERLIN taz | With fewer than 2,5 million inhabitants, Gabon is a country on the Atlantic that consists largely of tropical rainforest and is therefore rather insignificant in geostrategic terms. For France it was and is one of the most important partners in Africa.
President Omar Bongo, who ruled absolutely from 1967 to 2009, was one of the most influential heads of state in the francophone world: due to his longevity, he eventually knew everyone, and due to his power of disposal over Gabon's oil funds, he was always able to intervene discreetly financially.
In Gabon's capital, Libreville, there is still a permanent French military base at the airport with currently 170 soldiers. Bongo's place of birth is Franceville, of course. The French Eramet Group, through its subsidiaries in Gabon, which operate manganese mines and the railway network, is Gabon's largest private investor and employer...
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Sweden | Oskarshamn | New construction NPP
Nuclear power plant failure Oskarshamn 3
Swedish government silently cashes in on nuclear power plant expansion plans
Stockholm - The Swedish government has quietly withdrawn its recent major announcement to build at least ten nuclear power plants by 2040. This is reported by the British daily newspaper “The Telegraph”. Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari exceeded her authority, the article says.
At the beginning of August 2023, Romina Pourmokhtari initially announced at a press conference that climate change in Sweden would require a doubling of electricity production and that Sweden would need new nuclear power plants by 2045, which would be equivalent to at least ten new conventional reactors. Now roll backwards.
Given the long construction times (10 - 15 years) of a single nuclear power plant, concrete implementation in this period was not foreseeable anyway, and this decision would not help to close the short-term acute electricity gap by 2030 or 2035...
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France | nuclear oversight | ASN | IRSN
Nuclear discussion in France: Macron wants to abolish security authorities
The French President wants to relax nuclear protection. Despite a parliamentary decision, he is aiming for a merger with the nuclear supervisory authority. Why there is criticism and why strikes take place.
An Emmanuel Macron cannot be stopped by small things like a negative parliamentary vote. What was thrown out the door by the members of parliament in the spring is now to be brought back in through the window shortly. It's just unfortunate that if there were negative consequences - such as a nuclear accident - they could affect half of Europe.
In the past, things seemed to be the other way around: when the Chernobyl reactor accident happened in April 1986 – then in the USSR, now in the Ukraine – officials in France claimed that the country was not affected at all.
[...] Precisely because the authorities' handling of the nuclear accident in France in 1986 was particularly poor, structural consequences were later drawn in the country. An independent authority was needed, which should remain separate from the state and economic interests in the nuclear industry, which are known to be particularly strong in France.
The law of June 13, 2006 on "Transparency and Safety in Nuclear Matters" secured this structure. And so for years two or three institutions existed side by side: the nuclear safety authority IRSN (Institut de surêté nucléaire), which was then joined by the radiation protection authority IRP (Institut de radioprotection), on the one hand and the nuclear supervisory authority ASN (Autorité de sûreté nucléaire) on the other.
[...] On July 19, largely unnoticed by the public, President Emmanuel Macron, in view of a government committee meeting on nuclear policy, called on his government to draw up a draft law that would after all merge the three institutions and merge them under the umbrella of the ASN. In doing so, he is disregarding the contrary vote by Parliament in the spring...
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August 30, 2003, Submarine K-159, RUS
Wikipedia
The K-159 was a nuclear-powered submarine of the Soviet and later Russian Navy. It belonged to the November class. In 2003, the decommissioned boat sank with nine crew members while being towed for scrapping...
demise
On August 28, 2003, towing of the submarine was scheduled to begin. There were ten sailors on board. On August 30, the boat suddenly became stern-heavy due to water seeping in through the rotted stuffing boxes. The sea later swept away one of the pontoons, which date back to World War II, and the boat sank a few hours later in the 238-meter-deep water. Seven of the crew went down with her, two more were recovered dead, one sailor survived...
salvage
In July 2007, the Russian Navy announced that it wanted to salvage the sunken boat. This has not happened so far (as of August 2023) - however, the Russian Navy had the area around the wreck examined for radioactive contamination in 2014. No increased radioactivity was detected, although there are still 800 kg of nuclear fuel on board...
29. August
Poland | Press freedom | EU member
Poland is trying to imprison journalists indefinitely without charge as a “Russian spy”.
Pablo González has been in pre-trial detention for 18 months without the country, which has been criticized for its judicial problems, having presented any charges or evidence of the serious allegations, despite everything, his detention has just been extended by another three months.
"It is both intolerable and unusual that a journalist from one EU member state has been jailed in another EU member state for a year and a half" as an alleged Russia spy, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) just tweeted. The Spanish section of the NGO draws attention to the case of the Basque Pablo González, who has been in a Polish prison for 18 months "without the Polish authorities being able to substantiate his serious allegations"...
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Uranium mining Niger | Orano | Cancers
The country shines
Niger is the EU's most important uranium supplier. Mining is in French hands and is being expanded further: this year there was a new contract.
BRUSSELS taz | Strategically, Niger is much more important internationally than Mali or Burkina Faso. This is also due to its mining resources.
According to World Nuclear Association data, in 2022 Niger was the sixth largest uranium producer in the world, behind Kazakhstan, Canada, Namibia, Australia and Russia. Its uranium reserves, estimated at 311.000 tons, account for 5 percent of world reserves, on par with South Africa and surpassed only by Australia, Kazakhstan, Canada and Namibia. The EU as a whole imported 2021 tons of uranium from Niger in 2.905, 24,3 percent of its total imports; Niger was thus in first place. In 2022, a third of the uranium used in France came from Niger.
Niger's uranium production is firmly in French hands. The company Somair (Société des Mines de l'Air), which exploits Niger's largest uranium mine in the Sahara desert on the outskirts of the city of Arlit and has a contract until 2040, is 63,4 percent owned by the majority-owned French Orano Group, formerly Areva. ..
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Nuclear lobby | the European Commission | Taxonomy
With the triumph of the nuclear lobby, sustainability has become less important
If you listen to the EU-14 nuclear alliance, which has lobbied for the green label of nuclear energy and now wants it to be treated the same as other renewable energies, anything goes, write Thomas Stuart Kirkland and Christiana Mauro.
Under the presidency of Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission has officially declared climate policy as its top priority.
But at the end of August, the first phase of one of three lawsuits against the European Commission, which target a core piece of European Green Deal legislation, was completed before the European Court in Luxembourg.
These lawsuits were not brought by opponents of climate change policies, but by those, including Austria and a number of environmental groups, who want to save the legislation from what they see as a fatal nuisance.
The lawsuits aim to revoke the Complementary Delegated Act on Climate Change (CCDA), which has been in effect since January this year.
[...] The media lost the ball
In their opinion, the inclusion of gas and nuclear power violates the overall purpose of the taxonomy regulation.
The media lost the ball
This hijacking of the EU's main tool for green policy was carried out openly by a misinformation campaign led by the nuclear lobby.
In March 2021, seven nuclear member states sent a letter to the European Commission calling for nuclear energy to be included in the taxonomy.
The intervention was picked up by the media at the time, but not critically commented on...
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Elections | Corruption | Guatemala | murders
Arevalos wins in Guatemala
Victory confirmed, but party suspended
The electoral authorities in Guatemala have confirmed the victory of left-wing candidate Bernardo Arévalo in the presidential election. However, his party was suspended for the time being.
[...] The anti-corruption fighter won the runoff election with 60,91 percent of the votes, the Supreme Electoral Court announced on Monday (local time). The ex-first lady Sandra Torres, who has not yet recognized her defeat, came up with 39,09 percent.
Arevalo's party suspended
However, the outcome of the election is far from decided. Arévalo's party was temporarily suspended at the request of a judge shortly before the final result was announced. An electoral court authority decided on Monday to temporarily withdraw the legal status of Arévalo's Movimiento Semilla (Seed Corn Movement) party because of alleged irregularities in its founding.
[...] Human Rights Commission calls for better protection
Arévalo is scheduled to take office on January 14, succeeding conservative President Alejandro Giammattei. Arévalo's team recently reported that there were assassination plans against him.
The Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights called on the Guatemalan government to take urgent precautionary measures to better protect Arévalo.
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Repository | Interim storage | BGZ
Nuclear waste: the end of the interim storage facility?
Since there is still no repository in sight, the decentralized nuclear storage facilities will remain in operation for decades to come. The federal company for interim storage spends more than 270 million euros a year on this.
With the shutdown of the last three nuclear power plants on April 15 this year, the end of nuclear energy was sealed. However, that does not mean that the problems are off the table. The question that remains unsolved is where to go in the long term with the radioactive waste packed in special containers for highly radioactive materials, so-called castors. Since a repository is not in sight, the spent fuel elements will remain in the interim storage facilities for decades. The state-owned company for interim storage mbh (BGZ) based in Essen, which employs around 600 people, is responsible for operation and security. There are currently around 1200 casks with high-level radioactive waste in the 17 interim storage facilities. "In the end," BGZ spokeswoman Janine Tokarski looks ahead, "we expect around 1800 casks throughout Germany that are earmarked for disposal."
According to Janine Tokarski, the Bundesgesellschaft für EndRepository (BGE) expects the final storage site to be determined "at the earliest in the 2040s". Another 20 to 30 years will probably pass for the planning and construction. Tokarski therefore assumes "that the highly radioactive waste can be removed from the interim storage facilities in the 2060s at the earliest". And it will probably take another 30 years to empty all the interim storage facilities and bring the castor containers to the repository. Until then, the interim storage devours a lot of money. The costs of the BGZ amounted to 271 million euros last year...
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August 29, 1949 (1st USSR atomic bomb test) Semipalatinsk, KAZ
Wikipedia
The Soviet Union carried out its first atomic bomb test ("RDS-1") on Aug 29, 1949 on the Semipalatinsk nuclear weapons test site (now Kazakhstan) through. Between 1949 and 1990, the Soviet Union carried out a total of 715 tests with 969 individual explosives ...
Atomwaffen A - Z
There are nine nuclear weapon states but only five are "recognized". The US, Russia, China, France and the UK -- the states that also have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council -- are named in the NPT as "nuclear-armed states" because they detonated nuclear weapons before 1957. However, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea also possess nuclear weapons, although Israel does not admit them, and are therefore not members of the NPT...
28. August
Low-level radiation | cancer risk | INWORKS
Cancer risk analyzed
Radioactivity - Low-dose radiation is more dangerous than you think
Low doses of radiation over a longer period of time, for example in the case of employees in nuclear power plants, increase the risk of cancer significantly more than was previously assumed. The radiation protection regulations would therefore have to be adapted.
Irvine (USA). The cancer risk caused by ionizing radiation, which is also referred to as atomic radiation in the general population, has so far been primarily determined by studies that used the survivors of the atomic bombing of Japan at the end of the Second World War as the data basis. Even today, these studies serve as the basis for radiation protection regulations, although employees in nuclear power plants, in health care and in other areas are exposed to significantly lower radiation doses for much longer.
Data from the International Nuclear Workers Study (INWORKS) provided evidence that risk assessments of long-term, low doses of radiation in the workplace need to be made significantly differently than the extremely high doses of radiation received by atomic bomb survivors.
[...] The study thus shows that prolonged exposure to low doses of ionizing radiation increases the risk of cancer significantly more than previously thought. According to the authors, the findings are important for developing new radiation protection regulations in the workplace. However, according to the authors, the study has some limitations, including insufficient data on radiation exposures in the early years of the nuclear industry.
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Press freedom | Indymedia | Radio Dreieckland
Raid on Radio Dreyeckland was unlawful
The house searches against the Freiburg radio station for setting a link to the archive of the banned platform linksunten.indymedia.org were unlawful. The broadcaster speaks of a "legal slap in the face" for the public prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe.
The Karlsruhe district court ruled on August 22 that the house searches at Radio Dreyeckland (RDL) were illegal. This is reported today by the radio station itself and the Society for Freedom Rights (GFF).
On January 17 of this year, the Freiburg police searched the rooms of the Freiburg radio station "Radio Dreyeckland" and two private apartments on behalf of the Karlsruhe public prosecutor's office. Data carriers such as laptops and smartphones were also confiscated.
[...] Irrespective of the current decision of the regional court and the requirement that all stored data of the journalists must be deleted, the criminal proceedings against Fabian Kienert continue. The editor had written the article in question. According to Radio Dreyeckland, his lawyer Angela Furmaniak is confident that this trial will end in an acquittal: "Anything else would not be compatible with the fundamental right to freedom of expression and freedom of the press."
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FDP | traffic light coalition | Armament
Basic child allowance: rearmament instead of "social clunkers".
2,4 billion instead of twelve billion: FDP largely gets its way on basic child allowance. How the "turn of the times" affects the scope for social welfare.
Alongside "climate blahblah," "social nonsense" is part of the typical usage of the FDP - even if they like to play social and climate protection off against each other, the economic liberals use such neologisms to make it clear again and again that both are of little importance to them.
"Now it has to be about Germany as a location and not about social clunkers", said FDP member of the Bundestag Frank Schäffler on Monday about the agreement in the traffic light coalition on basic child security...
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offshore | Baltic Sea | North Sea | sea surfaces
competition for sea space
Double whammy in offshore wind power
Everyone wants to be on or across the sea: the LNG industry, shipping companies, the navy, fishermen and sailors. Offshore wind power is now also competing for the increasingly scarce space, so far primarily with conservationists.
When it comes to the German coast these days, the political debate mostly revolves around the planned liquefied natural gas terminals - whether they are all needed and also how the fossil infrastructure affects the environment. It almost went unnoticed that Germany's coasts were experiencing a double whammy in the expansion of offshore wind energy this summer.
For a long time little or nothing had happened in the field of wind power at sea. In 2020 and 2021, offshore expansion almost came to a standstill. There was a lack of projects, available sea areas and connections to the land network.
At the beginning of this year, only 8.100 megawatts of offshore wind were connected to the grid. In 2030, however, it should be 30.000 megawatts in the North Sea and Baltic Sea, and then 2045 megawatts in 70.000.
[...] The North Sea and especially the Baltic Sea are already suffering from multiple uses. Civil and military shipping, fishing, sailing, tourism and last but not least the forced construction of large LNG terminals pollute the marine environment...
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Coal exit | German Federal Network Agency | electricity market
Coal phase-out enters the next phase
The last tender for the phase-out of coal has been completed. In future, operators who have to shut down their power plants will no longer be compensated.
The Federal Network Agency has completed the last tender for the phase-out of coal. Six bids for power plants with a total output of a good 280 MW were awarded the contract. The lowest bid was 45.000 euros per MW, the highest 85.200. From March 2, 2026, the awarded plants may no longer burn coal. For other power plants with a total output of 262 MW, the Federal Network Agency orders a ban on coal firing without compensation.
[...] If transmission system operators classify a system as systemically important and their application is approved by the Federal Network Agency, this system should also be available in the grid reserve after March 2, 2026. It may then not sell electricity on the electricity market, but is still available to secure the electricity grid in critical situations.
27. August
Elections | Corruption | Guatemala | Argentina
Latin America: Why "system opponents" are successful
With Bernardo Arevalo in Guatemala and Javier Milei in Argentina, candidates who present themselves as "opponents of the system" have celebrated electoral successes. They are not at all - and they still experience so much encouragement.
"We're not against the system, the system is against us," chanted the "indignados" more than a decade ago on the streets of Madrid when an economic crisis shook Spain. They protested against the banks and against the politicians. A similar wave of resentment - albeit with a different focus - has been rolling across Latin America for years. And almost everywhere there are politicians who swim on it, calling themselves "antisistema", opponents of the ruling system.
[...] In terms of the history of ideas, however, the term "antisistemico" refers to people who understood the capitalist system as the root cause of their problems and wanted to destroy and overcome this system.
But this applies just as little to Arevalo as to Milei. "In Arevalo I see a social democrat who wants a capitalism that is dominated more by institutions and less by corruption." And the ex-presidents of the USA and Brazil, Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, are not opponents of the system either, explains Aguirre Rojas. "You represent a very anachronistic right."...
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Ukraine War | Battle Tank | Arms Dealer
Scrap Leopard tanks for Ukraine
In 2019 Leopard 1A5 tanks were still sold for 500 euros, with the Ukraine war enormous deals are being made with old, decommissioned weapons.
Ukraine has received the first 10 Leopard 15A tanks, it was reported in early July. This is also evident from the Federal Government's "List of military support services". In March, 18 newer Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks were delivered, which among other things are better protected against mines. For this purpose, 18 new Leopard 2A8 battle tanks will be purchased for the German armed forces. Poland and Portugal had also shed slightly older Leopard 2s. As is so often the case, the Ukraine serves as a battlefield for the scrapping of older weapons caused by the war, which the governments propagate at the same time as selfless aid (Does the Ukraine serve as a garbage dump for the West, for cheap disposal of old weapons and ammunition?)...
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Drinking water | seawater | desalination
Baltic water against water bottlenecks in Berlin and Brandenburg?
Due to imminent water bottlenecks, Berlin and Brandenburg are now looking towards Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. There is the idea of pumping water from the Baltic Sea to Berlin.
Pumping Baltic Sea water all the way to Berlin - Brandenburg and Berlin now want to conduct a study to determine whether this is possible. The reason: impending bottlenecks in the drinking water supply.
Drinking water production from the Baltic Sea would be "new territory"
An example from Baden-Württemberg shows that such a line system can work. There, water from Lake Constance is channeled to the north of the federal state. Whether this can also work between Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin and Brandenburg is now to be examined in a feasibility study.
[...] The order for the expert opinion is to be awarded this year. The reason for the considerations is a study by the Federal Environment Agency, according to which bottlenecks in the drinking water supply are threatening in the greater Berlin area and along the Spree. The impending state of emergency is mainly due to the fact that significantly less groundwater will be pumped into the Spree after the end of coal mining in Lusatia. "Due to the sinking groundwater levels, we will have water problems if we do nothing," said Vogel.
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Often chemically contaminated
Researchers warn against drinking straws and paper cups
The sale of plastic drinking straws has been banned in the EU since summer 2021. Alternatives made of paper or bamboo are available. But scientists warn of chemical substances in the products. According to a study, paper cups also pose a potential health risk.
Instead of the banned plastic straws, many restaurants now have paper ones. However, they can also be harmful to the environment and health, warns a research team in the journal "Food Additives & Contaminants: Part A". Many supposedly environmentally friendly drinking straws made of paper or bamboo therefore contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals, so-called PFAS. The sale of plastic drinking straws has been banned in the EU since July 3, 2021.
The group led by Thimo Groffen from the University of Antwerp examined drinking straws from 39 brands available in Belgium. PFAS were detected in 18 of 20 tested paper straws...
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Energy transition | Wind power | insolvency
Why wind power manufacturers are running out of steam
It sounds paradoxical: Wind power is to be expanded, but one manufacturer after the other is closing. Insolvencies and closures are also increasing in the area of transport.
Manufacturing gears for wind turbines: For 160 employees at the Eickhoff company in Klipphausen, Saxony, that was a job with prospects - especially in times of the energy transition. "I never would have thought that our plant would close, it was a huge shock for everyone," says Jörg Koziol from the works council.
Because in April the news came that the end of the year was over. According to Eickhoff, the reasons for the closure of the just 15-year-old plant are the cheap competition from China and the much too long approval phases in this country.
Germany can no longer completely produce wind turbines
And Eickhoff is not alone in this: The wind gear manufacturer Zimm in Ohorn also reports that it will be shutting down its operations. Before that, the Dresden wind turbine manufacturer Iqron had to file for bankruptcy, as did the Partzsch wind turbine generator plant in Döbeln...
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Ecuador | Crude oil | fossil | oil slick
Historic victory: Ecuador is the first country to say no to oil
116 billion liters of crude oil are stored in the most species-rich part of the Amazon. The funding has now been stopped in an unprecedented referendum. Is it the beginning of the end of black gold?
There is little reason to be optimistic at this time when it comes to the escalating climate crisis. Although there is little time left, at most a decade, to halve greenhouse gases globally to still have a chance of not exceeding the 1,5 to XNUMX degree Celsius ceiling, governments are not changing course, with few exceptions , while large quantities of gas, oil and coal continue to be extracted from the ground and greenhouse gases increase. Many states are even approving new fossil exploration projects.
But one piece of news stands at odds with these negative trends. Last Sunday, Ecuadorians voted overwhelmingly against oil drilling in part of Yasuní National Park, the most biodiverse area of the threatened Amazon rainforest that is rapidly heading towards irreversible tipping points.
Nearly 60 percent of voters, in a binding referendum, opposed oil drilling in the national park's so-called Block 43, which is home to indigenous tribes — like the Tagaeri and Taromenane, two of the world's last communities in voluntary isolation — as well as Hundreds of bird species and more than a thousand tree species have their home. The Associated Press reported:
The result is a major blow to Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso.
With more than 5,4 million votes for stopping production and 3,7 million votes against, it is the largest democratically elected victory against the fossil fuel economy not only in Latin America but arguably in the world.
Most of Ecuador's oil is found beneath the Amazon rainforest, whose role as a major carbon sink has been severely weakened in recent years by deforestation and relentless corporate exploitation. With the vote, around 726 million barrels of oil (around 116 billion liters) remain underground in Yasuní National Park.
The state-owned oil company, Petroecuador, produces more than 55.000 barrels of oil per day, which is about XNUMX percent of Ecuador's oil production. The Ecuadorian government is now obliged to shut down operations and dismantle the infrastructure within a year, as well as carry out rehabilitation and reforestation measures.
The victory is the result of years of persistent campaigning by the Yasunídos collective and other civil society groups, and is sure to inspire climate activists in other parts of the world. But arguably the most important lesson for other governments from the referendum is how fossil investments can quickly become stranded assets as societies turn against fossil fuels.
The government in Quito tried with all means at its disposal to prevent a vote that was supposed to take place ten years ago, for example by not accepting a successful petition for a vote. After a court ruling that finally forced the government to do so, both the Ecuadorian president and Petroecuador leaders campaigned against a freeze, warning of $13,8 billion in losses over 20 years.
But proponents have been able to convincingly argue that, on the contrary, the environmental damage is costing Ecuador more than the oil revenues are bringing in.
Inspiration for global trend reversal?
In fact, the victory goes back even further in the past. As the New York Times reported ahead of the vote, the referendum "is the culmination of a landmark proposal made nearly two decades ago when Rafael Correa, then-President of Ecuador, tried to persuade wealthy nations to cede his country to it pay to leave the same oil field in Yasuní untouched. He asked for $3,6 billion, half the estimated value of the oil reserves."
Correa tried to push the proposal for over six years, but failed to persuade the rich industrialized countries to pay up. At that time, the federal government under Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) initially promised to contribute 50 million euros, but the then Development Minister Niebel (FDP) finally withdrew the promise.
When Correa announced that the proposal had failed and drilling would begin, many in the country, especially the young, began to protest. This gave rise to the movement for a referendum...
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Background knowledge
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The map of the nuclear world
Nature had hidden all that toxic stuff deep underground long before man came along and was goddamn smart to dig it up again....
The internal search for
Ecuador | Crude oil | fossil | oil slick
brought the following results, among others:
August 3, 2023 - Traces of huge oil slick reach coasts of Mexico
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May 5, 2023 - Ecuador swaps debt for conservation
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February 24, 2023 - Toxic gases, forest fire, oil slick
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August 18, 2022 - "Indecent even for committed capitalists"
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June 16, 2022 - Marco Bülow: "Profit lobbies and coal mafia have prevailed in the SPD"
YouTube
Petroleum oil slick pollution
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Erdöl Ölteppich Verschmutzung
Videos:
DW Projekt Zukunft - June 23, 2010 - 4:00 am
Oil in the sea - how vulnerable is nature?
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ARTE report - January 31, 2023 - 24:04
Venezuela: The sea and the oil
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WDR documentary - April 4, 2023 - 43:31
Victims of the oil industry: when the air is polluted
Playlist - radioactivity worldwide ...
This playlist contains over 150 videos on the topic
The search engine Ecosia is planting trees!
Petroleum oil slick pollution
https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=Erdöl Ölteppich Verschmutzung
Editorial network Germany
1,5 million square kilometers of oil slicks
Study: More than 90 percent of oil pollution is man-made
Crude oil is a major problem for the sensitive ecosystems in the oceans. Until now, researchers have assumed that many oil spills are due to natural leaks in the seabed. A study now shows that this is not the case.
Tallahassee. According to a study, much more of the oil pollution floating on the oceans is man-made than previously thought. At around 94 percent, the overwhelming majority can be traced back to human activities, such as releases from ships, offshore rigs or pipelines, researchers report in the journal Science. Previously, for the period 1990 to 1999, it had been estimated that around half were due to natural leaks in the seabed - according to the current evaluation, however, it is only around six percent. One reason is probably the sharp increase in shipping traffic over the past few decades, explains Ira Leifer from the green tech company Bubbleology Research International in a comment on the study...
Wikipedia
An oil spill is the contamination of the environment, particularly the oceans, by crude oil or petroleum products. In the case of major pollution, which mainly occurs during accidents (especially from oil tankers), it is also referred to as an oil spill, especially if coasts are also affected (see also list of significant oil spills). Accidents make only a modest contribution to the total amount of oil entering the seas. What is probably the biggest oil spill to date was a result of the Gulf War. However, most of the world's oil enters the sea from land, partly via rivers. In regular ship operations, oils are discharged both legally (see MARPOL) and illegally. The large proportion of this caused by oil tankers from tank washing and ballast water ingestion in cargo tanks has decreased due to changing regulations and procedures. Oil discharges also occur through natural oil leaks, through the entry of volatile hydrocarbons from the atmosphere and through oil production at sea (offshore)....
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List of significant oil spills
The list of significant oil spills includes events where a significant amount of crude oil or petroleum products was released, particularly oil tanker accidents and oil platform accidents. An oil spill causes ecological damage and economic losses for fisheries, seaweed harvesting and tourism. Fires cause significant air pollution. The list does not claim to be complete...
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Newsletter XXXIV 2023 - 20nd to 26th August
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