The THTR Circulars from 2006

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THTR Circular No. 104, January 2006

High-temperature reactor in Jülich: reactor on the hook

Radioactive fuel elements were sold to China

Anyone who wants to get an idea of ​​the dimensions that the problems can assume when dismantling the THTR Hamm, look to Jülich! The general test reactor (AVR) will be dismantled there.

This HTR worked with 1988 MW power until 15 and has been idle ever since. For comparison: The THTR provided the Twenty times electronic performanceif, as an exception, no incident prevented this.

The AVR granted approval for safe confinement in 1994. This then had to be changed four times. After extensive inspection bores in the reactor vessel, "unforeseen events" caused further delays in the dismantling attempts. In March 1999, the NRW Ministry for Economics and Medium-Sized Enterprises, Technology and Transport reported: "In the concrete chamber system of the decommissioned AVR test reactor in Jülich, radioactively contaminated water was detected. (...) The measured specific activity in the concrete chamber water, mainly caused by the radionuclide Strontium 90, is 80 Becquerel per liter with a total amount of water of around 800 cubic meters Because of escape. (...) As a result, the soil in the immediate vicinity of the reactor building was contaminated and contaminated concrete chamber water got into the rainwater sewer on the premises of the AVR and the FZJ."

As shareholders of AVR, the 15 energy supply companies (EVUs) were overwhelmed by the project, transferred the further responsibility to Energiewerken Nord (EWN) GmbH and, in this elegant way, were rid of a big problem. The originally East German company EWN has already dismantled interim storage facilities for nuclear submarines in Murmansk and the Greifswald nuclear power plant. Incidentally, the "trade unionist" Jobst Weißenborn from the IG BCE main board assists as deputy chairman of the supervisory board.

The original intention of dismantling the reactor in the existing building and moving it to a warehouse has been abandoned. The new dismantling concept provides for the entire reactor vessel to be lifted out of the plant as a whole on large hooks. For this purpose, a huge supporting frame made of steel girders and supports was built around the reactor. This massive "material lock" alone weighs 2.400 tons and costs 5,5 million euros. It increases the reactor building from 48 m to 58 m. In addition, ventilation systems have to be installed. The newly created roof area is 1.500 square meters. The shell construction of the material lock was carried out within three quarters of a year by the company "Stahlbau Queck Düren". The topping-out ceremony for this building project took place on September 16, 9. It was embarrassingly celebrated with a lot of political celebrities.

The entire construction ("an extremely difficult task" according to Stahlbau Queck) will only be completed in another three years. Only then can the reactor be hooked up and dismantling started.

In the meantime, a fuel element interim storage facility has been set up on the AVR site. Around 5.400 radioactive spherical fuel elements were removed from the reactor and returned to the neighboring Research Center Jülich (FZJ). The FZJ homepage reports on the further whereabouts of these balls: "Transfer of 5.400 AVR fuel elements for an international project to the PR China (completed)"There they are urgently needed as fuel for the new HTR generation, because an HTR research reactor is already in operation in Beijing and construction of a large HTR power reactor will begin next year.

In Germany, however, the nuclear HTR disaster is causing an endless spiral of costs. From 1988 to 2003 were alone for the AVR decommissioning according to official information 189,7 million euros issued. And there will be 200 million euros to be added. Up to 2003, 90% paid the federal government and 10% the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBH) spoke in 2002 of a "desolate course of the project"(TAZ of July 15, 7).

The TAZ continued: "The Federal Audit Office has now taken on the case. Its assessment was devastating. If the previous situation and the pace of work are retained, the project will probably last at least four years instead of the originally planned 18 years ', he warned the budget committee of the Bundestag. The costs would increase from the original 39 million to 215 million euros more than quintuple. (...) According to the law, the federal government is neither obliged to carry out the reactor dismantling nor to finance it. The property belongs to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the reactor itself belongs to the AVR, in which 15 municipal utilities are involved. The AVR and the state would therefore also have to be responsible for the dismantling of the plant, believes the Federal Audit Office. That would be 64,5 million for the AVR-HTR. In addition, there are 5,6 million euros annually for the decommissioning of the THTR in Hamm. The nuclear industry likes to sweep these costs under the carpet.

The decades-long HTR disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia will not prevent the nuclear industry from continuing to aggressively propagate this bankruptcy technology. Right next door in Jülich's partner city of Aachen, they are from 16. to 18. May 2006 on "Annual Conference on Nuclear Technology" forge new plans for the future and boldly talk about the supposed blessings of high-temperature reactors. We can all pay for this gross nonsense.

Meanwhile, RWE is preparing the further expansion of the HTRs on an international level by producing the "Detail Design" for the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) in South Africa. In the newspaper "Atomwirtschaft" (atw, Nov. 2005) there is a full-page job advertisement from RWE, which is looking for a manager for a "challenging task in the field of tension between fuel element mechanics, neutronics, thermohydraulics". In particular, it is about "Specifications for and evaluation of new core and fuel element designs". It is already clear when the tasks are formulated as follows: "Contact with national and international engineering companies, expert organizations and authorities as well as research institutions". It is a demonstration of the will to expand nuclear power.

Horst Blume

Further articles on the AVR in Jülich can be found in THTR Circular No. 80 and No. 81 a DAK Bungalow.

A few days before Christmas, signs and wonders still happen. The NRW Ministry for Economics, Medium-Sized Enterprises and Energy answered our inquiry of March 20, 12 on the THTR fuel elements in the BEZ Ahaus on December 2005, 18, after we had urged a full answer a second time in July 3. Here is the wording of the ministry's response:

"With regard to your question about the examinations of a pressure switch on CASTOR containers, I can inform you today that the relevant examination program initiated by the MWME has now been carried out and completed. GNS) also involved the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) and TÜV Nord EnSys Hannover GmbH & Co. KG.

The investigations have a cause for the response of the operational monitoring system (BÜS) Reference switch malfunction of the addressed pressure switch clearly confirmed.

The integral leak test carried out over the entire pressure switch unit (main switch plus reference switch) as well as the individual leak tests did not reveal any complaints. No leak was found. The sealing chamber pressure and the switching point of the main switch were also in the setpoint range.

The function of the pressure switch examined was in accordance with the specifications, as the tightness and the locking chamber pressure of the CASTOR container to be monitored was still monitored at all times, ie even after the reference switch malfunctioned.

The experts also stated that a corresponding malfunction of a main switch - analogous to that of the reference switch - would also have triggered the BÜS. The self-monitoring of the pressure switch was therefore not impaired by the above failure but worked as intended.

The malfunctioning of the reference switch that occurred was assessed as a single fault by the consulted experts.

On behalf of PG Ceyrowsky "

In Pakistan, Abdul Khadir Khan is considered a national hero - despite the passing on of secret nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Khan acquired his knowledge in the XNUMXs - in the Dutch part of Urenco.

In August, Ruud Lubbers, the former Dutch Prime Minister, shocked his compatriots: At the request of the US secret service CIA, the Netherlands had let the Pakistani nuclear spy Abdul Khadir Khan go in the mid-XNUMXs, Lubbers announced on the radio. "Give us information and don't arrest him," was the CIA's demand at the time - in the Cold War that was tantamount to an order: "The Hague, Washington had the last word," says Lubbers. "There was no doubt that they knew and heard everything." As the responsible minister of economics, Lubbers was skeptical even then: "I had doubts that it was the right way to go".

Lubbers' doubts were justified: Khan is now the greatest nuclear smuggler of all time. In February 2004, the mechanical engineer, who headed the Pakistani nuclear program from 1976 to 2001, publicly admitted nuclear technology and know-how Iran, Libya and North Korea to have passed on. A disgrace for the CIA headquarters in Langley: All three countries belong to the incalculable "rogue states" that President George W. Bush calls the "axis of evil".

Khan himself was never punished: the nuclear scientist is considered a national hero in Pakistan - after all, India, with which the Muslim state fought three wars after the end of British colonial rule in 1947, also has the weapon of mass destruction. Despite his confession, Khan was pardoned by Pakistan's Prime Minister Pervez Musharraf for his services to the country's nuclear program, but is practically under house arrest in the capital, Islamabad.

The Dutch government was similarly reluctant to take action against Khan in the mid-XNUMXs. After studying at the Technical University of Delft, Khan became noticeably interested in centrifuge technology for uranium enrichment, operated by the Dutch part of the Urenco in Almelo. This was not hidden from the Dutch secret service. He was supposed to be arrested as early as 1974, but the CIA held a protective hand over him. Instead, the engineer was transferred - and was warned: a year later he did not return from a trip to Pakistan.

The Netherlands only tried him in absentia in 1983. Nevertheless, Khan on the Rhine and Maas is not considered to have a criminal record: In 1985 he was acquitted at the second attempt because of formal errors, after which he even traveled to Holland twice in person. There he bought the missing technology for the Pakistani nuclear program, Khan still boasts today: "During this time, we were showered with offers."

In the logic of the cold war, this was only logical. Equipped with the uranium enrichment centrifuge technology from Urenco, Khan was supposed to help neutralize the young atomic power India - and became the genie from the bottle: In exchange for the latest rocket technology, the nuclear physicist made his knowledge available to Iran, Libya and North Korea. The role of the Pakistani army in the armament program has never been clarified - Pakistan's Prime Minister Musharraf was general of the force.

Khan is still engaged in international diplomacy today: the United States suspects Iran, in the underground works of Nathan to promote uranium enrichment. Depending on the degree of enrichment, the atomic material can be used for peaceful electricity generation, but also for building atomic bombs. Israel's ex-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday called for a preventive strike against the Iranian nuclear program: As in 1981, the Israeli air force must bomb the nuclear facility - and thus lay Abdul Khadir Khan's technology transfer to rubble and ashes for the time being."

Andrew Wyputta, from: TAZ-NRW from December 06.12.2005th, XNUMX

Further reports on UAA and Khan are in the issues of the THTR-Rundbrief No. 95, No. 98 and No.99 a DAK Bungalow.

Buckled masts, days of power outages - the weather has brought an industry into need of explanation, which stands for price gouging and super profits.

(...) Today almost nothing works without electrical energy. The electricity companies are being rewarded princely for this, and with their monopoly-like structures they ensure that the price screw is turned lively. So you don't have to be surprised if you are pilloried after the events in the Münsterland.

In addition to the power plants, the pipeline network is the most important physical capital of the energy companies. You can refinance this with high transmission fees from your customers. In return, the four regional monopolists E.on, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall are at least obliged to ensure that this network works. This was obviously not the case with RWE in Münsterland, and now consumer advocates, customers and politicians are asking how that could be, and demands for compensation are being made. At the same time, it is puzzled as to how secure the pipeline network is in Germany.

RWE initially tried to talk its way out of "Force Majeure" and rejected claims by injured parties. In the meantime, the Essen electricity multinational has set up a multi-million dollar fund to "help" in alleged cases of hardship. At the same time, the legend of old steel, which tends to become brittle, was circulated.

Many of the RWE high-voltage pylons are still made from this material, and the group has launched a program to replace these pylons by 2015. They want to spend 550 million euros on it, and the process cannot be accelerated either. Period.
But there was opposition to this line of argument. »That's a lazy excuse. The maintenance has been neglected«, Said Akos Paulinyi, specialist in iron and steel engineering, the Financial Times Deutschland (Tuesday edition). Steel made using the so-called Thomas process was the subject of talk. »There are tons of constructions made of Thomasstahl that are over 100 years old and in perfect working order. You have to look after them sensibly, ”said Walter Suttrop, steel construction consultant in Düsseldorf.

RWE vehemently rejected the accusation of sloppy maintenance. The group’s own restructuring program speaks against this. 70 percent of the 2 problem masts have already been replaced. "Lines are checked annually, also by helicopter," said a spokesman.
Paulinyi did not accept that. RWE shy away from personnel costs: »Maintenance cannot be automated. You have to go from mast to mast, climb up and look. You can't do that by flight control, ”said the professor emeritus. In 2003, RWE outsourced maintenance to a service company. In any case, it cannot be because of the money if RWE is skimpy here, at most because of its notorious greed for profit. 1,7 billion euros in profit reported the former municipal company listed in the Dax in the first three quarters of this year alone. It should have a lot in common with the other quasi-monopoly in the industry.

(...) From: JungeWelt from December 7.12.2005th, XNUMX

Thames Water: Why RWE bought the London water and sewage systems and now wants to sell them again quickly"

Rheinische Elektrizitätswerke AG (RWE) bought Thames Water, London's water and sewage company, in 1999. The initially high profits that were possible for a long time in the privatized English companies were tempting here. The profits at Thames Water flowed at the expense of a ramshackle pipeline system. Because the regulatory authority is now demanding investments and limiting the return to six percent per year, RWE is fleeing: There is more to be earned with gas and electricity.

By purchasing Thames Water in 1999, RWE took over the world's top-selling water and wastewater systems, which are operated by a private company: Thames Water has eight million customers for drinking water and 15 million for wastewater in the greater London area. With this, RWE wanted to lay the foundation for becoming number one in the global water business. Because water has appeared or appeared to investment banks and utility companies since the 90s as the "blue gold": In view of the increasing scarcity, it could be expanded into a globally lucrative business of the century. The French world market competitors Vivendi / Veolia and Suez / Ondeo had already bought into the water and sewage works of metropolises between Rio de Janeiro, Paris and Jakarta.

In 1989, Thames Water Utilities Limited was founded as a public company under the direction of the privatization fundamentalist Maggie Thatcher. US pension funds and investors from London's banking district bought the shares. As a birthday present, the "conservative" government exempted the privatized state-owned companies from all profit taxes. In the decade after the founding of the new economy, all promises of the new economy could be fulfilled: The salaries of the managers rose, the water prices rose and the profits rose.

RWE has a lot, a lot of money: For decades, the group has been using its position as the regional electricity monopoly of North Rhine-Westphalia to collect excessive electricity prices. The state cartel office is helping, as are hundreds of politicians who are supported by RWE on supervisory and advisory boards and on payrolls. Even at RWE, where the outdated image still prevails that the municipalities have the say over their few preference shares, nameless international investors have long since moved in alongside the well-known shareholders Allianz AG and Münchner Rück. You have the majority with 41 percent. You are pushing for lucrative investments.
RWE bought Thames Water in 1999 at an inflated price of eleven billion euros. The previous shareholders were happy to sell, despite a decade with high returns, because RWE made their exit sweeter with an unusually high premium on the share value: it was fraudulent 43 percent. RWE had two goals: They wanted to continue the seemingly double-digit "dream return" in the largest urban water area in the world. At the same time, Thames Water appeared to be the key to conquering the global market: the privatized water company, benefiting from the historic position of the English metropolis, had already expanded through acquisitions and investments in several countries of the British Commonwealth.

In the first few years, expectations were fulfilled. RWE invested as little as possible, raised prices and "earned" high profits. With them RWE / Thames Water paid for further global expansion in Asia, Australia, Africa, the USA, Canada and South America. The most expensive chunk was the largest US water company, American Water Works, at eight billion euros, which operates water works and sewer systems in 29 US states and four Canadian provinces with 18 million customers. With holdings in the waterworks in Jakarta, Conception / Chile, Mallorca and Budapest, RWE / Thames Water currently has around 70 million customers. The profits of the entire group rose, not least due to the contribution from the water business from 2000 to 2004 from 3,9 to 5,9 billion euros. Thames Water not only continued the high returns under RWE management. The essential prerequisite for these profits also remained: The huge pipeline system with 32000 kilometers of drinking water pipes and 64000 kilometers of sewers was run at the technically lowest possible level. Many lines and channels are over 100 years old and should have been modernized long ago. "

This is far from the end of Werner Rügemer's article in "Junge Welt" on December 19, 12. It can be read in full on our website. The following aspects are presented in detail:

Gigantic amounts of drinking water and sewage seep into London and have caused massive environmental damage. RWE is the company that is most frequently charged with environmental crimes in England. Due to these scandals, Prime Minister Blair could not avoid setting up a regulatory authority, which demanded a total investment of 1.184 million euros by 2010 for the repair of the ailing pipeline systems from RWE. And it limited the dream profits to a maximum of 6 percent. The previous rip-off with ailing pipe systems and increased water prices has now become impossible for RWE. High time for the Essen-based company to sell the water division!

Horst Blume

Hamm's downplayers of accidents are still tirelessly active. The THTR security officer from 1986, Ivar Kalinovsky, significantly changed in 1991 to the same Federal Office for Radiation Protection that so generously approved the THTR Castor storage in Ahaus. As the newspaper "atw" reported in the November 2005 edition, Kalinowski worked at the annual nuclear technology conference in the specialist meeting "Current developments to secure know-how and competence in nuclear technology". Here he gave his lecture "Committee work - a contribution to the preservation of know-how". The closest possible penetration and interlinking of the interests of manufacturers and operators of nuclear facilities as well as authorities and control bodies could certainly not be presented as competently by anyone else than himself.

Horst Blume

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