The THTR Circulars from 2011

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THTR Circular No. 137, Dec. 2011

Content:

THTR: Half (value) time

Poland is not lost yet!

Is Africa lost?

Arab Emirates: lies and deceit

Angra 3: Fascist Continuities

Spring 2012: Castor transports Jülich - Ahaus!

With Marc and Cent: Pabst abuse!

THTR: Half (value) time

The THTR was shut down in 1989. A so-called thirty-year "shutdown operation" is planned for the period from 1997 to 2027. We are now at halftime and can draw an interim balance.

So it is a good thing that this year the Greens in the Bundestag sent two long questionnaires to the federal government in quick succession and answered them in printed matters 17/5764 and 17/6667. On the basis of this official information, a summary of the current status is given here.

Who pays - doesn't?

The decommissioning of the THTR costs around 5 million euros annually. The previous financing regulation for this, according to which the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the federal government paid almost everything and the operator Hoch Temperatur-Kernkraftwerk GmbH (HKG) paid almost nothing for two decades, expired on December 31, 2009. Four negotiations about the financing were broken off in 2009 without any result. The result of a further discussion on July 18, 7 has not yet been announced in the media.

Participants were representatives of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the federal government, HKG, the shareholders of HKG and PriceWaterhouse Coopers. One HKG shareholder, presumably RWE, has so far refused to approve a possible agreement. In the printed paper it says: "The federal government is currently refraining from naming the HKG shareholder, as it cannot be ruled out that naming them will have negative effects on the ongoing contract negotiations." - So the federal government has to crawl in front of a powerful energy company because of a few million euros a year! This is only a very limited payment agreement until 2017. After that, the theater will start all over again anyway.

How high are HKG's financial reserves? A legitimate question, because the future expenses for decommissioning, dismantling and "disposal" of the THTR will be unpredictably high. At the end of 2010, HKG had accumulated assets of 45,8 million euros and cash assets of 1,6 million euros from the interest on reserves. In other words: in a few years the money will be used up just for ongoing decommissioning operations! And who then pays for everything else that comes next?

What sums is it - not?

The Federal Government lists the costs that it believes can be expected in printed matter 17/6179:
"For the phase of decommissioning, production and operation of the safe enclosure (1989 - 2009) including the advance payments made to the final repository, costs totaling around 430 million euros were incurred . 130 million euros financed by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and around 150 million euros from HKG.

According to the HKG balance sheet dated December 31, 2010, the total costs of the further orderly residual processing (operation of safely enclosed facility until 2030, interim storage until 2050, dismantling, advance repository service until 2080) amount to r. 675 million euros. This includes around 350 million euros for the complete dismantling of the plant without advance repository payments, according to the cost estimate by Siempelkamp NIS Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH (status: 2007). "

We already pointed out in THTR circular No. 124 (2008) that the assumption of 350 million euros for complete dismantling is far too low:
"The still unfinished dismantling of the twenty times smaller THTR in Jülich is characterized by a" desolate course of the project ", according to the Federal Ministry of Research. There the costs will at least quintuple to well over 400 million euros. One reason for this is significantly higher contamination than Calculated in advance because a lot of radioactive graphite dust was distributed in the plant. This is what the Jülich scientist Moormann found in his latest study. It will be similar with the Hammer Pleite-THTR, since the operators will not provide a nuclide atlas after the THTR has been shut down the system has been built, unpleasant surprises may be waiting for the demolition command (...)

The engineering group that has now been commissioned has merely "re-examined" the old cost calculations and shifted a few columns of numbers back and forth in their abstract calculations. They are not reliable assumptions. Even the NRW Ministry does not want to embarrass itself any more than is absolutely necessary and writes: "Basically, it can be stated that the present report is one that was commissioned and submitted by the operator. The costs determined over approx. EUR 347,1 million seem rather optimistic. "

The federal government is also keeping a low profile when it comes to forecasts and writes: "Based on the current state of knowledge, no statements can be made about future costs and, in particular, the breakdown of costs by carrier."

Let the radiation subside first ...

Why should the THTR only be dismantled after 2030? The Federal Government replies: "According to the nuclear regulatory authority, the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Economic Affairs, radiological reasons in particular speak in favor of dismantling after 2030, as the dose rate for the personnel employed in dismantling the plant is much lower at that time compared to direct dismantling (...) The decision as to whether a safe enclosure should take place before the dismantling depends on various factors and, in particular, on the specific radiological situation. "

Since the operators of the THTR preferred not to tell the public after 1989 how strongly and where the reactor is radioactively contaminated (missing nuclide atlas), we are all poking around in the fog today. A little tip: According to the operator, the 1 kilograms of plutonium that are definitely present in the THTR have a half-life of 5 years. - So much for the topic of "fading away".

Repacking 612.000 balls?

For the 612.000 spent fuel element balls of the THTR, the problem will arise in the near future that they will be stored in 305 castors of the "THTR / AVR" type. That corresponds to a volume of 1.300 cubic meters. According to the federal government, these special castors are only approved as "transport and intermediate storage containers". But not as a final storage container. So do the 612.000 fuel element balls have to be repacked in completely new castor casks that are ready for disposal before they are sent to the repository? This would add considerable expense and effort. In any case, the Federal Government cannot make any "statements" on this today. Certainly there is now a feverish search for scientists who, in return for a pension that has been promised, consider it responsible to store the radioactive spheres in the old, "inexpensive" interim storage containers.

Dismantling knowledge for future THTRs worldwide?

In printed matter 17/6179, the Greens asked in detail several times to what extent it is planned to use findings from the decommissioning operation and the dismantling of the THTR specifically for HTR reactors planned around the world. The operating company HKG set out this intention in detail several times in its application. The federal government replied as follows:
"In accordance with the justification for the draft resolution by the EU Commission, the Federal Government assumes that the findings from the operation of the safe enclosure and from the dismantling, in particular due to the peculiarities of the concrete construction, such as the prestressed concrete reactor pressure vessel (SBRB) and the treatment of the ceramic components, can also be transferred to future dismantling projects. (...) The usability of the findings is not limited to high-temperature reactors. " - This formulation does not rule out that the experience with the THTR is already being used specifically for future reactors of the Generation IV planned throughout the EU.

Secure liens with RWE!

It is becoming increasingly clear that HKG and RWE have saved far too little money for the decommissioning, securing and possible demolition of the THTR. In "anti atom aktuell" No. 219, environmentalists describe the dramatic situation as follows:

"Rapid decline in the value of nuclear power companies also threatens taxpayers. The state now has to demand collateral such as liens from RWE & Co. After years of mismanagement with billions in bad investments in unprofitable holdings and power plants with no future, investors are currently punishing the RWE group. The price of the ordinary share has fallen by 101 percent from its peak three years ago from 77 euros to 24 euros today. Including the non-voting preference shares, RWE's stock market value was 55 billion euros and is now only 14 billion euros In 2011, the stock market value shrank from 30 to 14 billion. (...)

The demolition (of nuclear facilities) is far from over. The nuclear waste must be disposed of as safely as possible. It is the duty of the state to find the final storage locations and to build the storage facilities there. The cost of the nuclear power plant owners must rightly pay. For this, the nuclear companies have accumulated billions in provisions tax-free, but burned a lot of them in bad investments. We demand: The state must act in the interests of the taxpayers and demand securities such as liens from the nuclear companies! "

The THTR chapter is far from over. Let's make sure that those who caused the misery finally bear the costs of their bankruptcy reactors themselves!

I already reported in THTR-Rundbrief No. 132 (July 2010) that Poland is planning to build new nuclear power plants and that on May 2-6, 2010 Polish scientists talked to their German colleagues at the Freiberg Mining Academy about the alleged advantages of the Have informed HTR-Linie. It's only a stone's throw from Poland to Dresden-Rossendorf, where Professor Hurtado, who originally trained in Jülich, is busily promoting pebble-bed reactors.

The disaster in Fukushima did not dissuade the government in Poland from their plans. It wants to start building a nuclear power plant in 2016, which will deliver electricity in 2020.

So far Poland has only had experience with two research reactors. In 1958 "Ewa" went into operation 30 kilometers south of Warsaw. 1974 the swimming pool reactor "Maria". The planned nuclear power plant "Zarnowiec" in Pomerania, 50 km northwest of Gdansk, was given up in 1990 after fierce resistance from the population.

In the 143-page "Program for Polish Nuclear Energy" (1) from January 2011, detailed plans with the corresponding intermediate steps were presented by the Polish government. The legal, institutional and infrastructural framework conditions must therefore be created in the next few years. In addition, there is the definition of safety requirements and the training of specialists. - A very high expense for the supposedly so cheap nuclear power! Since Poland is still at the very beginning of developing these requirements, you can count on five fingers that it will take longer than planned. And of course much more expensive. Of the 27 possible locations proposed so far, three have been favored so far:

The location of the nuclear power plant is to be determined by the end of 2011

"At the top of the ranking list is the Zarnowiec location on the Baltic Sea coast, where a nuclear power plant was already under construction in the 1980s. Klempicz is in second place near Posen in Greater Poland, followed by Kopan 'in West Pomerania on the Baltic Sea. On behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the PGE will carry out more detailed investigations at four to six locations, including analyzes of land availability, ownership and grid connection. The suitable location for the construction of the country's first nuclear power plant is to be determined by the end of 2 "(2011). - It is also planned (p. 2) to mine the uranium available in Poland itself in order to reduce dependence on the world market in the long term.

"Since the beginning of October, interested German citizens in the authorities in Saxony and Brandenburg near the border have also been able to view the Polish plans and send comments to the environmental department of the Polish Ministry of Economic Affairs" (3).

In order to increase the acceptance of nuclear power plants, extensive and complex "information" campaigns are planned, since the population supposedly has no "serious knowledge" (p. 109) about nuclear plants. Even the children in the first grades of schools should be indoctrinated (p. 109). While the state and corporate "information campaigns" are presented in striking detail with seven pages, the future "management of radioactive waste" (p. 103) - that's what they call the centuries-long securing of nuclear waste - is short on just one page. - Significant!

High temperature reactors for Poland

The "Polish Nuclear Energy Program" also focuses on high-temperature reactors in the medium to long term:
"By 2050, fast high-temperature reactors of the fourth generation are expected to be in operation, which should serve as a link to the closure of the nuclear fuel cycle and in this way expand the stocks of nuclear fuels for thermal reactors. For 2050, the same technologies were therefore examined, whose consideration was taken into account for the period up to 2030, with significant differences in relation to the parameter values, which result primarily from the price development - as well as from the following factors:
Nuclear power plants with high-temperature gas reactors / HTGR "(p. 38).

The use of thorium reactors is seen positively in the program:
"Another possibility of expanding the available nuclear fuel is the introduction of thorium into the fuel cycle, the occurrence of which in the earth's crust is 3 times higher than the occurrence of uranium" (p. 95).

Poland will probably not be the first nuclear reactor to build the HTR. Because the first companies willing to cooperate have something else on offer: "Areva and Westinghaus are sending pressurized water reactors with an output of 1100 to 1650 MW into the race, while GE Hitachi wants to build a boiling water reactor of 1600 MW" (4). The decision should be made in 2013.
But we shouldn't forget that a few kilometers further on on the other side of the border Professor Hurtado (see also RB No. 136) and his entourage will leave no stone unturned to make his greatest professional hobby-horse pebble-bed reactor attractive to Polish nuclear fans:

"In Dresden we also have a lot of students from Russia, Ukraine, and Poland. They come to us to study because word has got around that the TU Dresden offers very good nuclear engineering training" (5) . - It is high time that we took a closer look at these shameless saboteurs of the nuclear phase-out and with some time-consuming discussions and questioning activities to stop them from their shameful activities.

The blue of the sky ...

The new nuclear program in Poland is not stingy with full-bodied promises and hair-dusting trivializations:
"The clear sky is the characteristic symbol of nuclear power plants" (p. 85).
"This means that the radiation caused by the nuclear power plants is one hundred times less than the natural radiation, if the comparison between Finland and Poland is made" (p.85).
"The construction of nuclear power plants and the infrastructure accompanying these projects leads to the creation of several thousand new jobs" (p.89).

The authors of this nuclear program see the Polish population as a crowd that can be manipulated and tamed at will and dance to the tune of the nuclear industry. No lie is bold enough to be dished! These 143 pages reveal directly and without make-up the inhuman worldview of unscrupulous henchmen of the nuclear industry.

Some of the largest anti-nuclear demonstrations in the world have taken place in Berlin in recent years. New nuclear facilities are to be built in Poland soon, just 300 kilometers to the east. Something should be done about that. Let us ensure that the nuclear lobby does not also receive support from the FRG!

Notes:
1. see: www.nuclearforum.ch
2. see: www.nuclearforum.ch
3. Junge Welt from October 29, 10
4. See 3.
5. See: Sächsische Zeitung of April 13, 4

After the construction of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) in South Africa failed terribly and with 1,5 billion euros wasted, one would think that the political leaders there would learn from this bankruptcy. -- Not even close!

Just six days after the disaster in Fukushima, the South African government announced in March 2011 that it intends to build a total of six nuclear power plants with a total output of 9.600 MW. At the beginning of 2012, the Minister for Energy Dipuo Peters intends to bring a corresponding proposal to the cabinet (1). The South African government took advice on this from Electric Power Research (EPRI), a US research organization that is financed by US energy providers and which certainly has its own interests. EPRI calculated what the government wanted to hear in view of the problems of obtaining loans for nuclear power plants: Allegedly, the construction of the targeted nuclear power plants would only cost 70 to 80 percent of the price calculated two years ago. There is no conclusive evidence for the assumed "price reduction".

The South African government is not getting wise from the devastating experiences with the PBMR. She firmly assumes that the first nuclear power plant will go into operation in 2022 and the second in 2027. The desired CO2 minimization must serve as the justification for the pro-atom course. Alternative energy is only marginally promoted.

The neighboring country Namibia, a former German colony, also shows that liberation movements, when they gain government power, behave no more cautiously in energy policy than the old industrial nations who believe in progress. With Russian or Chinese help, this country wants to have its first nuclear reactor on the grid as early as 2018 (2). A very unrealistic assumption because Namibia neither has the necessary infrastructure nor trained nuclear scientists. The huge uranium deposits alone do not help.

Despite the current disaster in Fukoshima, most countries in Africa are relying on nuclear power. How realistic this wishful thinking is does not need to be discussed here. Certainly some governments want to have the possibility of building nuclear bombs by building nuclear power plants. Whether the countries of North Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Congo, Cap Verde or Kenya (that is already putting money aside for these nuclear projects) - they all cling to the promises of the nuclear lobby and will in reality still experience their blue miracle (3) . Only Senegal is the big exception and has reversed its nuclear power plant construction plans this year. The nuclear lobby has had problems selling its plants around the world after the recent Fukushima turbulence. Africa is the only bright spot for them.

Notes:

1. Nuclear Monitor No. 733, September 23, 9

Friday, July 2, 14

3. New Germany, July 4, 7

Two days after the start of the catastrophe in Fukushima, preparations for the construction of the first nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) began on March 14, 2011 with the groundbreaking ceremony.

The THTR-Rundbrief reported in detail in issues 130 and 131 about the background. And about the fact that at the same time as the start of several major nuclear projects, Dubai was awarded the contract for the prestigious International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). This decision, made on an international level, was miraculously "spurred on" by the commitment to build the "emission-free" and 22 billion dollar city of Masdar in the desert sand, which was yet to be built.

In view of the economic crisis, the hype that has been announced is now ending as a flop: only a few university buildings have been built so far. In an updated plan, completion was postponed to 2020 to 2025 and the promised alternative energy systems will not be built. Only the water and electricity consumption should be reduced by half. The "Freitag" commented critically on June 30, 6: "Every new tourist facility on the Mediterranean now achieves such values, because the cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi serve as a benchmark. The metropolises of the UAE have the highest energy and resource consumption in the world." . There is enough money in this despot state to build several nuclear power plants.

The movement against the FRG Hermes guarantee for the Brazilian "Angra 3" nuclear power plant is gaining momentum. It has to, because a decision is expected in January 2012. Online petitions with over 125.000 signatories, postcard campaigns by the Urgewald organization (see picture) and protest campaigns in 40 cities impressively document the resistance.

On November 12, 2011, activists from Robin Wood, Attac and Urgewald hung over the entrance to the FDP special party conference and greeted the delegates with signs saying "Atomic death is not exported" and "Stop Angra 3". The place of protest was exactly the right choice: The two FDP foreign ministers Genscher and Westerwelle were or are not only pulling the strings of the nuclear deal for decades, but also worked together with the Brazilian military dictatorship and their successors.

# In May 132, issue No. 2010 of the THTR-RB reported in detail on the help of German Nazi scientists in setting up the Brazilian nuclear program. In the business magazine "Lunapark21" (No. 14) Horst Blume took up the topic again in the four-page article: "Historical continuities from the fascist era". Current campaign information can be found at: www.urgewald.org

In spring 2012, the 152 THTR / AVR castors of the Jülich research reactor are to be transported from Jülich to Ahaus by truck. Up to 76 individual transports are planned.

The transports do not bring any safety gains: the lightweight construction halls in Jülich and Ahaus hardly differ. Neither of them are secured against plane crashes. So a postponement only pretends that the nuclear waste is being disposed of. In truth, every transport across the country is another risk. The red-green state government of North Rhine-Westphalia looks on - contrary to its announcements - inactive. There will be resistance and action against these transports.

In August 2011, according to the radiation protection report of the Radiological Remote Monitoring NRW, two reportable events occurred which resulted in a malfunction in the container monitoring system. "STOP Westcastor" demands clarification about the background to these events.
Info: www.westcastor.de

Dates:

18 December 2011, 14 p.m .: Big Advent Sunday stroll at the Ahaus nuclear waste storage facility at the end of the year and the start of the Castor transport from Jülich.
4. February 2012, 10 a.m .: International uranium conference in Münster
March 11, 2012, 13 p.m .: Fukushima large-scale demonstration for the immediate nuclear phase-out in Gronau and worldwide

Would you happily welcome in Germany a completely backward looking, yesterday, highly dubious "dignitary" bearer who even wants to work with anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers like the Pius Brotherhood? - Probably not. But the social democratic hammer MDL Marc Herter does it. And it really costs something. On September 22nd, 9 he and some other like-minded fellows placed a full-page (!), Expensive color advertisement with the title: "Welcome home Pope Benedict". With this, Herter documents more than clearly that he is ready for political and professional success, every but also really every adjustment effort that could help him. The main thing is to go up the career ladder. - May he burn in hell for it!

This not so young social democrat has the format to replace the previous THTR-RB series "Laurenz Meyer, Teil ..." (21 episodes so far).

So on to new deeds, Marc! - Boy, you have real potential! According to the articles in RB No. 132 and 136 this is "Marc Herter, Part 3"!

Story writing 20 years after the cooling tower was blown:

"At that time, a green, radical troop held the cooling tower for four weeks. They had stunned a guard and are high. I could always see the flag waving."

On September 25, 9, the hammer "Stadtanzeiger" printed this statement by former FDP councilor Willi Walther, with which almost nothing is right, without comment.

Dear readers!

In the June 2011 issue of the atw, the most famous specialist magazine in the atomic lobby, the engineer Urban Cleve wrote a ten-page (!) Article about the alleged advantages of the high-temperature reactor. It covers a quarter of the entire magazine. The nuclear industry does not give up so quickly and tries again and again because of the solid profits and government subsidies. If no THTR can be built in Germany at the moment, then maybe a few kilometers across the border in Poland or the Czech Republic; they speculate on that. For the FRG corporations, many an order would then be lost.
The THTR circular will (unfortunately) not become superfluous. If necessary, we will pursue our topics for many years.

So that this can continue to happen in the future, we ask the subscribers to transfer ten or twenty euros every one or two years to the BI account listed in the imprint. Thanks very much!

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