The reactor bankruptcy - THTR 300 The THTR Circular
Studies on THTR and much more. The THTR breakdown list
The HTR research The THTR incident in the 'Spiegel'

The THTR Circulars from 2010

***


    2023 2022 2021 2020
2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014
2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008
2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002

***

THTR Circular No. 131, May 2010


Content:

PBMR: The penultimate line-up - with Obama dollars!

Excellent NRW nuclear power?

Arab Emirates: nuclear power and "alternative" breakdowns

3 major demonstrations put government under pressure!


PBMR: The penultimate line-up - with Obama dollars!

After the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) in South Africa was turned off by the state because of the lack of success, the wretched rest of the bankruptcies, bad luck and breakdown company in the USA tries to continue. Gerhard Seyfried: Lord, OBAMA you ourAt the same time attempts are being made to talk the Poles into a THTR. In the FRG the involuntary swan song on the HTR reactor line is taking on bizarre forms.

If the magazine "Atomwirtschaft", also called "atw" for short, devotes nine pages to the high-temperature reactor in December 2009, then based on previous experience with the THTR, one can be fairly certain that the object shown is on the verge of being forever in the Technology museum to disappear. - But not without shouting bad words after the critics of this reactor from the grave of billions: "It is all the more regrettable when German 'scientific research institutes' take up deliberate misinformation about the tragic reactor accident in the Ukraine from a source there and claim that the radiation exposure was not through Chernobyl, but rather by a disturbance in the THTR-300. A downright shameful behavior of the Freiburg Öko-Institut, which can only be viewed as a misleading, and proves what citizens can think of 'warnings' from such institutes. " (1)

One can almost visually imagine how the atw author and hard-working FAZ letter writer Dr. Ing. Urban Cleve in his office at Hohenfriedeberger Strasse 4 in Dortmund is disgusted with typing the word "eco" on the keyboard. And alleged lies and misinformation, which for him still come mainly from the Ukraine and from the bad Russ, is responsible for the incidents and problems in the THTR. It was therefore the stab in the back of fanatical ecologists who destroyed "almost visionary trains of thought" with their "incredibly correct and far-sighted considerations" (2) and caused the lovingly piled THTR building blocks to tumble. The little engineer's favorite toy broke and anyone who speaks of "impermissible radiation exposure" in connection with the THTR accident is, in the opinion of Urban Cleve, "maliciously unteachable" (3)!

The reactor often reacted badly too. It did not want to function as the engineer had imagined: "Difficulties arose when the fuel element was withdrawn due to a significantly higher breakage rate of the fuel elements in relation to the AVR" (4). - The licensing authority is Cleve's fault for everything. This had outrageously dictatorially stipulated that it should first be tested what happens when you poke around in the pebble with the switch-off rods. It is clear that the balls then had to break: "This was due, among other things, to the fact that the licensing authorities demanded a test run that was probably much too long for running in and moving the shut-off rods in the core" (4).

The engineer rises ecstatically from side to side with ever more devoted hymns of praise for the miracle reactor: "Not a single technology, even today only in the form of an idea, promises such a great, especially economic chance of success" (5) - With all due respect, this one greedy tone sounds a lot like an "old friend". And rightly, under the obligatory "Acknowledgment" he is named: "Hermann Josef Werhahn, former member of the AVR Advisory Board". Wherever there is something to be earned, he is there (see THTR circular no. 127: "The Werhahn growls. The holy family and the THTR in Rhenish capitalism").

PBMR: Poland needs more reactors!

When the ex-banker Edgar Most (Deutsche Bank) suggested on March 9, 2010 that a high-temperature reactor be built in Poland three kilometers from the German border, he quoted his old friend Werhahn: "For him, this type of reactor is 'foolproof', 'villain-proof' 'and' rocket-proof ', as he explains to the' world '. "(6).

The ex-banker does not propagate the THTR in Gryfino (before 1945 the place was called Greifenhagen) completely selflessly. He is the chairman of the supervisory board of the Leinfeld group of companies, which operates an expanding paper mill nearby and urgently needs cheap, highly subsidized electricity. In the meantime, however, there is resistance to these plans. The Märkische Oderzeitung reported on the ailing THTR model in Jülich: "The security expert Rainer Moormann issued the operators with a damning testimony in 2008". And asks: "Will the idea of ​​the 'green' nuclear reactor ignite in the Uckermark? They are not very enthusiastic about the Polish plans. More than 20.000 citizens have signed against a nuclear power plant" (7). The THTR lobby will have to look elsewhere for its fools.

South Africa: Obama you our!

In South Africa, the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor company had to lay off around 800 of its 2010 employees in March 600 because the state would no longer be providing grants for the project, which was in a whirlwind. The PBMR managers have been looking intensively for new donors for months.

On March 24, 2010, the newspaper "Sowetan" reported that the US Department of Energy is donating $ 10 million to the PBMR company so that it can survive the next few months and keep the company up and running on a makeshift basis. The "executive team" had to be reduced from 11 to just three members. The previous head of administration Jaco Kriek resigned in March 2010. "Sowetan" reported that for the next financial year, in addition to the Obama dollars, 30 million euros will be necessary for the continued existence of PBMR, which will have to be raised by the participating nuclear company Westinghouse and other shareholders.

Despite this (relatively "small") injection of funds, the PBMR could only be further developed in the USA under these circumstances. As early as January 2009, the radioactive spherical fuel elements manufactured in South Africa with the help of German companies were silently shipped to the USA. After the "Sowetan" a new PBMR 2024 could be expected in the USA. It was originally supposed to go into operation in South Africa in 2003. Even according to the unbelievable and optimistic forecasts of the nuclear lobby, it would be more than 20 years behind the schedule. You have to be as bold as PBMR "chairperson" Alistair Ruiters to turn this disaster into a significant step forward in the further development of the reactor line!

The US government has now approved two groups with a total of 40 participants to deal with the topic in more detail (8). So we see very clearly: The realization of the new reactor building is progressing with giant strides ..... It would certainly be appropriate if the US decision-makers in energy policy finally come to terms with the disastrous experiences of their own "archaic" predecessors of the PBMR, Peach Bottom -1 and Fort St. Vrain, would confront (9).

After "Sowetan", the PBMR company is the most expensive government project in the history of South Africa, with 8,7 billion rand spent on the company since 1999. And it is also unfinished and unsaleable. Obama will also burn his fingers at the PBMR.

Notes:

  1. From: atw 12, 2009, page 783
  2. Quoted from Cleve in atw 2009, page 776
  3. See 1
  4. See 1, page 782
  5. See 1, page
  6. From: Märkische Oderzeitung from March 9, 3
  7. See 6.
  8. From: BusinessDay of March 30, 3
  9. See THTR circular no.130

Operators of the HTR forerunner Fort St. Vrain in the USA report problems and breakdowns

We have made the (original) document of the failure from 1985 accessible again in English on our homepage (available on the right info column). We count several thousand visitors from the USA here every month. In issue 130 we already reported in detail about Fort St. Vrain.

Excellent NRW nuclear power?

TopUp to the top of the page - www.reaktorpleite.de -

Helmut Plontke: Pied PiperRotgrün is now even fighting against the ten-year government policy that she herself has practiced - if it is continued by Schwarzgelb!

Andreas Pinkwart, NRW Minister for Innovation, Science, Research and Technology, saddles his hobbyhorse high-temperature reactor again shortly before the NRW state elections, once again generously feeds it with the most expensive HEU and gallops towards the five percent hurdle an excellent jump - and the red-green opposition bravely stands in his way and shouts: Stop !!

After all, the minister will provide a total of 100 million euros from the state coffers for the competition "Energy Research NRW - Innovative Energy Technologies for Tomorrow". In the glossy brochure (2015) Pinkwart only mentions the object of his desire as a project by many:

"In addition, however, the processes for generating fuels - such as hydrogen or liquid hydrocarbons - must continue to receive a great deal of attention. High-temperature process heat is of outstanding importance for these processes. It can be provided in conjunction with the most modern fossil, nuclear or solar thermal power plant technology. Here we expect new impulses from you in this competition. "

"Nuclear Power Plant Technology"

The invitation to tender for the competition clearly states: "Use of high-temperature process heat in connection with fossil, nuclear and solar power plant technology." Specifically: "Here the potential of the efficient use of high-temperature process heat in connection with fossil, nuclear and solar thermal power plant technologies should be explored." The deadline for submitting competition entries is already on March 18, 2010. The projects will be selected by a jury in May 2010. Just under the old legislative period, which lasts until June 9, 2010. That is enough to create a fait accompli in the event of an election defeat on May 9, 2010.

Against nuclear adventures

In a joint application dated February 26, 2, the two NRW opposition parties, the SPD and the Greens, opposed "tax money for further nuclear adventures" and spoke out against new nuclear power plants in NRW:

"The cabinet draft of the new state development plan LEP is now available (Drs. 14/3189). It contains the following apparently unambiguous formulation on nuclear power:" Objective D. II 2-5: Nuclear power plants for energy supply are excluded in North Rhine-Westphalia. " Explanations can be taken from: "The use of nuclear energy for research purposes is unaffected." In response to repeated inquiries, State Secretary Baganz had to admit at the meeting of the Committee for Economy, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Energy on February 23, 2010 that with this formulation the new building of Research reactors in North Rhine-Westphalia would in future not be legally prevented but made possible. (...)

The state parliament instructs the state government to use all state legal possibilities in the further development of the amendment of the state development program LEPro in order to completely exclude the construction of nuclear power plants nationwide, regardless of whether they are for commercial purposes or declared as research reactors. "

Consistently only in the opposition

In the election campaign, the SPD and the Greens are remarkably meticulously devoting themselves to the subtleties of the CDU and FDP in their endeavor to give the nuclear industry a few million euros, to continue existing nuclear power plant research and to include two dozen (nuclear) power plant locations in the state development plan. The THTR location in Hamm will be there again. The SPD and the Greens did not show this consistency and thoroughness in any way when they formed the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia between 1995 and 2005. As a red-green state government, they launched financial subsidies for nuclear power research with, in some cases, identical phrases and ironed out critical questions from us citizens' initiatives in bureaucratic German. Dozens of issues of the THTR newsletter are full of them !!

From 1995 to 2005: 10 years of red-green HTR research funding!

The alimentation of high-temperature reactor research with state funds is not a result of black and yellow lobby politics in NRW, but was the result of the social-democratic industrial policy of the 60s, which was based on large-scale technology and was even continued after 1995 with the help of the Greens.

Even 15 years after the Thorium High-Temperature Reactor (THTR) was shut down in Hamm and after 9 years of red-green in 2004, the NRW Research Ministry was not in a position to clearly declare this reactor line to have failed. At the time, the ministry also did not comment on previous experience with this bankruptcy reactor. In their letter of July 12, 2004 to the citizens' initiative for environmental protection in Hamm, the red-green state government described the NRW-subsidized research on HTR technology as a "valuable contribution to the international safety of HTR reactors".

Because HTR research has been specifically promoted and financed here for decades, companies and institutes were able to use the results developed here in North Rhine-Westphalia all over the world and only through this research have they been able to prepare for the construction of new nuclear power plants!

Clumsy campaign theater

The assertion of the then red-green state government that Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) only carried out safety analyzes for this reactor technology belongs in the realm of legends. The nuclear industry itself boasted that for the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) in South Africa "the basic development work was done at Forschungszentrum Jülich" (in: atw, in the report on the event "International cooperation from the IAEA's point of view" from 24 10. 2000 in Bonn).

In the accompanying letter to the current state parliament proposal from the SPD and the Greens of February 26, 2, it says: "It is also about the incredible secret preparations of this state government for new nuclear adventures in North Rhine-Westphalia." With this sentence, these two parties have also very aptly described their own ten years of government action from 2010 to 1995. That they trumpet this so carefree and without any self-criticism in the direction of black and yellow is an insult to the intelligence of the critical voters in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Arab Emirates:
Nuclear power and "alternative" breakdowns

TopUp to the top of the page - www.reaktorpleite.de -

In issue no.130 we reported on the major nuclear power plant contract from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to South Korea and the concurrent award for the emirate of Dubai to set up the prestigious headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) there. A prerequisite for this miraculous decision was the announcement by the desert state that it would provide investments of 22 billion dollars for the supposedly zero-emission city of Masdar, which is yet to be built. We showed that even the design had serious flaws and inconsistencies.

On March 11, 3, the FAZ reported that the two main directors had left this project: "There is more movement in top positions than on the construction site." So far there has been hardly any construction progress and the completion of this absurd "alternative city" with over 2010 kilometers of access roads (!) For commuters has been postponed from 100 to 2016.

In the United Emirates, too, the economic crisis is running out of money and the construction of the city of Masdar must now be profitable. In the long run, this is impossible in view of the enormous financial upfront investment. In addition, local businesses and the local population are now to be given preference in the development of the city. The entanglements in the award of contracts and positions also caused delays. The future will show how little of the grandiose promises is still being realized.

It should be noted that, despite the planned construction of six (!) Environmentally harmful nuclear power plants with the alternative project promise Masdar City, the United Emirates sneaked the bid for the renowned IRENA. Where there is nuclear power, lies and deceit are not far away!

3 major demonstrations put government under pressure!

TopUp to the top of the page - www.reaktorpleite.de -

On April 24, 2010, the citizens' initiatives against nuclear power opened the dispute about the continued operation of nuclear plants planned by Schwarzgelb with a bang. 120 people joined the 000 km long human chain on the Elbe between Brunsbüttel, Brokdorf and Krümmel, the Gorleben trek demonstrated in Krümmel, 120 people surrounded the Biblis nuclear power plant and 20 people in Ahaus caused the largest demo in North Rhine-Westphalia since the Castor- Protests from 000!

The anti-nuclear movement has thus proven that the immediate nuclear phase-out is a central social demand. And in Ahaus we have made clear demands for state politics: The nuclear phase-out must also come in NRW and that means immediately shut down all nuclear facilities here on our doorstep - including the uranium enrichment plant in Gronau and the nuclear waste conditioning plant in Duisburg.

NRW is a center of nuclear energy and is massively affected by the dangers:

  1. Ahaus: Hundreds of nuclear waste shipments have been approved for the interim storage facility, "an average of two times a week"! From 2011 onwards, 152 castors with highly radioactive nuclear waste are to roll in from the Jülich Research Center - but moving nuclear waste is not just disposal!
  2. Gronau: The nationwide only uranium enrichment plant will be expanded despite the radiation accident in January, from 2011 a huge interim storage facility for 60 tons of uranium oxide is to be built.
  3. In Duisburg-Wanheim, EON and the RWE subsidiary GNS want to continue conditioning nuclear waste from German nuclear power plants and move it via Ahaus to the Konrad mine. In Jülich, Hamm and Würgassen, the contaminated sites are causing huge problems.
  4. The Lingen (RWE) and Grohnde (EON) nuclear power plants are to continue to run almost indefinitely just a few kilometers directly behind the state border of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Almelo uranium enrichment plant in the Netherlands is being expanded dramatically.

The speeches from Russia and France were impressive, the contributions from BUND and NABU were combative, and the Catholic women in Germany and Evangelical Women's Aid were thoughtful and determined. The climate alliance Niederrhein and Urgewald looked far beyond the domestic horizons and moved z. For example, the RWE nuclear power plant project Cernavoda in Romania came into focus - the dissolution of the energy companies RWE and EON was also a central requirement.

The anti-nuclear movement presented itself in many facets today: The demo was colorful, loud and determined - a clear signal that day X, on which the first Castor transport from Jülich to Ahaus takes place, will be exciting!

A striking number of young people took part in the major campaigns. This is certainly due to the increased mobilization of many preparatory groups on the Internet. Overall, many social groups were represented.

However, the many party flags at the Ahaus demo were annoying, even though the organizing citizens' groups had asked on their websites to leave them at home. The fact that most partisans do not adhere to it shortly before the Lantag election clearly shows their split relationship with citizens' initiatives. Exploit before the election, ignore after the election is their motto according to experience. At the demonstration, too, it turned out that many young people from the Green Party wanted to sell us in all seriousness the decade-long stipulation of the nuclear plant operation under Rotgrün as an "exit".

The four posters that some demonstrators held up next to each other showed that there was still some educational work to be done: "Shut down Hamm. Shut down Ahaus. Shut down Jülich. Shut down Gronau."

See: http://www.anti-atom-aktuell.de/fotos/20100424_ahaus-demo/slides/p1460125.html

Only the last claim is factually in order. Anyone who reads our website knows, of course, that the nuclear facilities in Hamm and Jülich were shut down at the end of the 80s. The large and small high-temperature reactors have been in decommissioning there for decades. Dismantling them will be dangerous and expensive. And the 305 Castor casks with the THTR fuel elements from Hamm are now in the Ahaus fuel element interim storage facility. Unfortunately, you can't simply "switch off" here. At most, discuss the least dangerous way out of this situation. Based on this experience, it is all the more important to insist on the fastest possible nuclear phase-out and to apply pressure accordingly.

***


TopUp Arrow - Up to the top of the page

***

Donation appeal

- The THTR-Rundbrief is published by 'BI Umwelt Hamm e. V. ' issued and financed by donations.

- The THTR circular has meanwhile become a much-noticed information medium. However, there are ongoing costs due to the expansion of the website and the printing of additional information sheets.

- The THTR circular researches and reports in detail. In order for us to be able to do that, we depend on donations. We are happy about every donation!

Donations account:

BI Umweltschutz Hamm
Purpose: THTR circular
IBAN: DE31 4105 0095 0000 0394 79
BIC: WELADED1HAM

***


TopUp Arrow - Up to the top of the page

***