The THTR Circulars from 2009

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THTR Circular No. 128, Nov. 2009

Content:

BÜSO and PBMR: sect and nuclear industry hand in hand!

The reactor and government have failed, but: forget everything is enough - AVR!

New THTR Castor transports to Ahaus!

Ignorance - No response from the ministry

BÜSO and PBMR: sect and nuclear industry hand in hand!

We already reported in the THTR circular no. 115 how the "Citizens' Movement Solidarity" (BÜSO) is carrying out a propaganda campaign around the world especially for the THTR. She crudely insults her opponents as "eco-crazy" and "bionic". It sounds very similar with the NRW ministers Pinkwart (FDP) and Thoben (CDU) as well as with the Hammer Bundestag member Jörg von Essen (FDP) when they also advocate the high-temperature reactor and defame environmentalists.

The cooperation between the South African operating company PBMR and BÜSO has intensified in recent years. The new planned nuclear project stood on very shaky feet for years and at least the originally planned PBMR failed in this version. However, this is no reason for those involved to back down. On the contrary, with full-bodied press releases about new planned international collaborations with China and the USA, the impression is given that the PBMR is always moving forward. It is doubtful whether these collaborations will lead to the construction of a single PBMR in the next few years.

BÜSO-Journalistik shines in its journalistic efforts through an impressive proximity to the economic and political decision-makers. If this obscure sect has preferential access to highly security-relevant sectors, that is definitely problematic. After all, the radioactive PBMR fuel element balls were manufactured in that South African Pelindaba atomic factory, where in 2006 there was a sensational attack on the five "apartheid atomic bombs" stored there (see THTR-RB No. 118).

On November 21, 2008, the article "Modular High-Temperature Reactors can change the world" by Marjorie Mazel Hecht was reproduced on the official homepage of the South African PBMR Society and linked to the BÜSO magazine "EIR Science & Technology". Hecht is also editor-in-chief of the BÜSO magazine "21st Century Science & Technologie", an avid THTR propagandist and had excellent relationships with the THTR developer Schulten himself. She contributed the article "HTRs: essential for powering the future" to the reader for the major international HTR scientists' conference in Washington in 2008. In the bibliographical information there is a subtle reference to the BÜSO chief guru Lyndon LaRouche. Mind you in a brochure from an international conference of scientists, which among other things assesses the safety aspects of the new reactor line! Anyone can imagine how critical such evaluations turn out to be with the participation of a fanatical nuclear sect.

Gregory Murphy, deputy editor-in-chief of the above-mentioned BÜSO magazine, is allowed to polemicize the Jülich scientist Rainer Moormann in the reader of the HTR conference, who, based on his experience with the AVR Jülich, is critical of the safety properties of the HTR line. There are no critical statements throughout the brochure. A wide variety of decision-makers from science and industry can sing the praises of the high-temperature reactors. The head of PBMR, Jaco Krieg, wrote the preface to the reader himself, of course. Long live independent science!

In their magazine EIR, on February 10, 2, the BÜSO people pushed right into the center of political power by asking the South African Minister Alex Erwin about the PBMR. And the PBMR-Power Plant Division General Mager Dieter Matzner at the same time. Tom Ferreira, named "Communication Consultant" in the legal notice on the website of the South African PBMR Society, presented the "Discussion" paper "PBMR: Clean, Safe and Affordable Energy ". Two nuclear sects work hand in hand here.

However, what would a sect be without conspiracy theories? Something would be missing. There are enough dark powers that want the glorious PBMR evil: The billionaire Soros ("high priest of globalization"), the foot troops of the international financial oligarchy, Earthlife Africa, the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Professor Steve Thomas, the PBMR- Critic. However, the chief scoundrel of all is - and now please hold on! - Prince Hendrik from Denmark !! The evidence is perfectly plausible: "Earthlife Africa also receives funding from the International Development Agency of the Danish Government (DANIDA) and from the Danish branch of the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), of which the consort of the Danish Queen Prince Henrik is the founder and president. All three Organizations are promoting a 'sustainable energy' project in South Africa. " (Source: www.bueso.de from April 14, 4)

The fight against the "Prince Philip cult" and the alleged "murderous wishes of Prince Philip" ("New Solidarity" of June 24, 6) may seem so bizarre and unrealistic to us that we would be inclined not to do all of this to take seriously. But be careful: the unexplained death of the young sympathizer Jeremiah Duggan in Wiesbaden, who is willing to leave the sect, has led to judicial investigations and violent allegations against BÜSO. The BÜSO predecessor organization European Workers' Party (EAP) was classified by the federal government in 2009 as a "political sect".

Finally, let's come back to the obviously "normal" relationships between BÜSO and the business elite. The "Neue Solidarität" reported proudly on September 30th, 9 about a performance by the guru-wife Helga Zepp-LaRouche: "The BüSo candidate for Chancellor was a guest on September 2009th at a conference of the Federal Association of Test Engineers for Structural Engineering (BVPI) 18 participants in Westerland / Sylt and spoke on a panel discussion on the subject of 'Lessons from the financial crisis'. " - The idea that the inviting test engineers for structural engineering might even "test" at a nuclear power plant could make you dizzy ...

The "Citizens for Technology" from Marl, who prefer to carry out nuclear propaganda, unabashedly refer to BÜSO reports in their short info no. 280 on April 29, 4 and also link them. In any case, they have no fear of contact with this dubious sect, the main thing is that the ruble rolls for the targeted nuclear deals. BÜSO for the rough, CDU and FDP for the concrete fulfillment of the wishes of the nuclear industry. This is what the division of labor looks like.

In the end there is still one question left. The Greens put it in the Bundestag on May 14, 5: "What information does the Federal Government have with regard to the above-mentioned organizations, especially with regard to the" Schiller Institute "and the" Civil Rights Movement Solidarity "(BüSo), (... ) about their safety-relevant contacts in circles of (nuclear) energy research and supply companies (...)? " The answer is: "The Federal Government has no knowledge of this."

On July 18, 2009, a pre-registration on Spiegel-Online caused a sensation and a broad media coverage from the Aachener Zeitung to the WDR:

"The operation of the research reactor in Jülich, which was shut down in 1988, may have political consequences. As SPIEGEL reports in its latest issue, the Federal Environment Ministry is investigating whether the operator and nuclear regulator in North Rhine-Westphalia may have failed. The background to the surprising advance is this extremely strong radioactive contamination of the reactor core. According to a scientific analysis, the research reactor has been operated for years at far too high temperatures and possibly only just skidded past a catastrophe. Due to the use of immature fuel elements and the high temperatures, according to Rainer Moormann, author of the Study, which has worked for years in safety research in Jülich, said the reactor core was contaminated with extremely high amounts of radioactive isotopes. According to the Darmstadt Öko-Institut, it is one of the "most problematic reactors due to the high level of contamination gates worldwide "."

This homepage and the THTR-Rundbrief reported about these problems almost a year ago, but only now, when a well-known news magazine took up this news, did it gain momentum in the election campaign. Because the THTR and Generation IV reactors are, in the opinion of the black-yellow coalition in North Rhine-Westphalia, particularly worthy of funding and, if there is a similar party-political constellation at the federal level, they can usher in the renaissance of nuclear power in the FRG. Right now a critical report came very inopportunely for the nuclear industry and its parties.

Irradiated reactor

In its print edition of July 20, 2009, Der Spiegel wrote about the Jülich THTR, which was closed in 1988:

"The reactor core is contaminated with high amounts of radioactive isotopes such as cesium-137 and strontium-90. In addition, a treacherous load lies dormant inside: 198 spherical fuel elements, some with highly enriched uranium, which have got stuck and can no longer be extracted. In two years The core is to be locked in a specially built interim storage facility on the premises of the research center. It is one of the most complicated and dangerous deconstruction of a nuclear facility that the world has ever seen. An entire reactor core, weighing 2100 tons, is cut out of its housing. Seven special cranes heave the 26-meter-high colossus horizontally and then bed it on a gigantic air-cushion sled. The inside of the reactor is so radioactively contaminated that the clean-up teams cannot yet dismantle it and weld it into containers. Its radiation is said to be behind heavy concrete walls on research site 30 up to 60 years e fade away before saw robots can get to work. "

Radioactivity in groundwater

With its 15 MW electrical power, the AVR is a tiny test reactor. The also breakdown-prone THTR in Hamm-Uentrop has a twenty times higher performance. It is completely uncertain what problems will arise when dismantling much larger reactors. - Der Spiegel described another incident with consequences in the THTR Jülich:

"It never occurred to the operators to shut down the reactor prematurely because of the design-related safety risk, not even when around 1978 cubic meters of water dripped into the reactor from a leaky pipe in 30. It was only pumped out. Even then, errors occurred. Part of the water ran through a joint in the ground into the groundwater. 21 years later, strontium-90 was found during a routine measurement in a rainwater sewer estimated, there is now talk of 34 million euros - for reactor disposal alone. "

A few weeks before the end of his term of office, Environment Minister Gabriel had a piquant check to see whether the operator and nuclear regulator in North Rhine-Westphalia had done something wrong in the old social democratic model country. So whether the SPD state government (involved in the Jülich nuclear research center) and the SPD-led municipalities also involved in the AVR reactor have failed for decades.

Gabriel is original. He even checked whether he himself was inactive as Environment Minister of Lower Saxony near Asse ...

Critical study bothers

The NRW Greens did not remain idle either and on February 24, 2 applied for a report from the state government on new findings about the AVR problems.

Because: Under the title "A safety-related reassessment of the operation of the AVR pebble bed reactor and conclusions for future reactors", Dr. Rainer Moormann from the Institute for Safety Research and Reactor Technology at Forschungszentrum Jülich published a study last year that casts considerable doubt on the safety of the earlier operation of the AVR Jülich in particular and on the concept of pebble bed reactors in general. According to this publication, uncontrolled high temperatures (above I. 00o C) seem to be the main reason for the severe radioactive contamination of the reactor vessel. It can be assumed that the AVR was operated far outside of the permissible safety limits - including all associated risks. "

The Ministry of Economics, Medium-Sized Enterprises and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia emphasized in their answer of June 30, 6:

"Shielding and confinement offered adequate precautions against high primary circuit contamination. A concept with compact encapsulation of all primary components in a double-walled reactor pressure vessel, which in turn is enclosed in a pressure-tight containment (protective vessel), was used."

NRW state government admits: 1280o C are hot!

In addition, the Thoben Ministry could not avoid officially confirming the details of the new Jülich study: "In 1986 a new temperature measurement with fusible wire balls was carried out in the reactor core, in which the temperature measuring balls removed were sometimes higher than those based on the hot gas temperature measurement As a result of the evaluation of the temperature measurement, fuel element operating temperatures higher than 1 ° C were found locally in the reactor core compared to the expected fuel element operating temperatures of 100-1 ° C. The fact of high core temperatures, which were determined by the operator by means of the fusible wire tests, is correctly described in report JüI-200. "

However, the CDU / FDP state government put the result of the critical study into perspective. The radioactivity was able to escape from the spheres, but luckily there was another barrier:

"The 'uncontrolled high temperatures' referred to in the Jül-4275 report refer to the release of fission products from fuel assemblies during operation at elevated fuel assembly temperatures and the associated contamination contributions within the reactor vessel. Test nuclear power plant, as stated above, within the approved framework and not outside the safety-related permissible limits, as presumed in Mr. Priggen's inquiry. "

Gabriel examined old comrades in NRW

Gabriel's old comrades in North Rhine-Westphalia, to whom the CDU / FDP coalition has hereby issued a subsequent clean bill of health, will take note of it with satisfaction. The study by the critical scientist Rainer Moormann has caused so much dust that, in the light of these findings, the nuclear halo of Generation IV reactors pales even on an international level. The problems of the pebble bed reactor are too obvious. If the CDU and FDP still rely on this reactor line, that doesn't show how narrow-minded and blinded they are. So are many others, the friends of the social democratic state reactor THTR led the way in the 60s and 70s. But with centralized nuclear energy, the energy companies can earn a lot of money just as much as with centralized solar energy from Africa or huge coal-fired power plants. This is the key point.

Twenty years after the 59 transports of a total of 305 THTR / AVR Castor casks from Hamm to Ahaus, there will probably be renewed storage in the intermediate fuel storage facility (BEZ).

At the end of September 2009, the Society for Nuclear Service (GNS) based in Ahaus, with its application to the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, expressed its interest in receiving the 152 THTR spheres stored in 300.000 Castor containers from the AVR Jülich research reactor in Ahaus, which was decommissioned in 1988.

For many years, attempts have been made in Jülich to dismantle the highly contaminated THTR. New difficulties are piling up and a financial disaster of around half a billion euros is imminent. And of course the 300.000 fuel element balls also have to go somewhere:

“The storage of these casks in Jülich is limited until mid-2013.” If the fuel elements were to remain in Jülich beyond this period, extensive investments would have to be made there at the expense of the taxpayer. The handling and monitoring facilities in the Ahaus interim storage facility, however, meet the requirements for interim storage of the containers from Jülich without any further changes - we are absolutely state-of-the-art here, "says Rosen Containers from the Hamm high-temperature reactor. " (Münstersche Zeitung October 305, 6)

The GNS in Ahaus has submitted its application for approval at the instigation of the Research Center (FZ) Jülich, which wants to get rid of the nuclear waste: "'Of course we would benefit from a permit in this regard,' said the FC spokesman." (Aachener Nachrichten October 8, 10)

GNS, striving to utilize its hall, which is only 5 percent used, praises the advantages of the envisaged procedure in its press release from October 1st, 10:

"The necessary transports take place within North Rhine-Westphalia. The length of the transport route from Jülich to Ahaus is comparable to that from Hamm to Ahaus. Here transports from THTR Hamm took place without any disruptions in the 90s. Both FZJ and the Ahaus interim storage facility In addition to a good road connection, they also have a rail connection, the transport can in principle take place by road as well as by rail. (...)

The CASTOR®-THTR / AVR container, whose main task is to ensure maximum safety in all situations, guarantees compliance with all protection goals. "In practice, however, the THTR / AVR castors cannot speak of" maximum safety ". Due to various problems and incidents, in several cases there was a lively exchange of letters between the responsible Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia and, among others, BI Environmental Protection Hamm.

Here is a little chronology:

1999

Just four years after the last transport from THTR Hamm to Ahaus, the first castors are rusting. The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia admits: "The reason for the corrosion findings is that the corrosion coating on the containers has only a thin layer on sharp edges and is particularly susceptible to mechanical damage there, and there is no coating in individual areas such as stamp fields, threaded bores and screw holes . " Within the next three years, all protective plates of the 305 containers had to be moved to another location and sandblasted to remove any rust damage (see THTR-RB No. 63).

2002

The repair concept for leaking castor containers was checked with an unsuitable computer program. A control calculation carried out with a new program revealed the error, the GNS admitted (see THTR-RB No. 75).

2004

"On July 15, 7 the storage container monitoring system (LBÜS) of the transport container warehouse responded due to a malfunction of a component. Investigations were initiated in accordance with operational regulations, the defective component was identified, replaced and the container affected by the fault was returned to the System connected ", wrote us the responsible Ministry of North Rhine-Westphalia (see THTR-RB No. 2004).

2005

Renewed corrosion damage to the castors. The hall in which the castors are stored is completely wet and resembles a stalactite cave (see THTR-RB No. 98, 99 and 104). In addition to the Jülich castors, another application has been made that provides for the transport of "bulky" nuclear waste of unknown origin for the next few years. The German nuclear waste processed in LaHague must also be taken up in Ahaus.

For Sunday, December 20, 2009, the anti-nuclear power initiatives in the Münsterland are planning a demonstration at the Ahaus interim storage facility, which is being called for nationwide.

It is still unclear who will have to pay the annual EUR 5,6 million in decommissioning costs of the THTR from 2010. The NRW Ministry of Finance has not yet responded to our repeated inquiries about how far the negotiations with RWE / HKG have progressed and whether they will finally participate with a significant amount.

FDP and Nazis in NRW

After 41, 1945 former NSDAP members moved seamlessly to the NRW state parliament, namely to the FDP or CDU parliamentary group. In particular, the FDP Economics Minister Middelhauve gathered a "number of formerly prominent National Socialists", wrote the "Welt" in 1952. MDL Rüdiger Sagel commissioned the highly acclaimed new 29-page study. It can be viewed at: www.sagel.info/service/DasvergessenebrauneErbe.pdf

Dear readers!

I will refrain from pointing out how great it was at the big anti-nuclear demonstration in Berlin in September. The hope of activating a few more people in Hamm after the mass actions in Gorleben in 2008 through a motivating report in the circular was disappointed. Seven people from Hamm, all of them non-party by the way, were there in Berlin and set the counterpoint that was probably the most noticed in the federal election campaign. The result of the efforts of those who stayed at home, on the other hand, has been far less exhilarating. Congratulations!

It is very surprising how few people in Hamm really appreciate the fact that the THTR has been shut down and see this as an obligation for an occasional engagement against other nuclear power plants. Have you so much forgotten the horror of the many incidents? The shining atomic soup will have to be spooned out by the younger generation and climate change will be added to it. Experience of resistance and knowledge of a now almost 35 year old citizens' initiative should at least be passed on. But to whom in Hamm, please?

All over the world, our homepage is visited many thousands of times a month. I don't know if anyone from Hamm is among them. In any case, there will continue to be polemics and pointed articles. It's also fun to annoy the rulers. However, only in four editions a year instead of nine as in the year before last.

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