| THTR 300 | The THTR Circular |
| Studies on THTR and much more. | THTR breakdown list |
| The HTR research | The THTR incident in the 'Spiegel' |
THTR Newsletter No. 156,
December 2023:
***
| 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||
| 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 |
| 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 |
| 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
Content:
“Green” hydrogen: colonial energy? - No thanks!
China: HTR future in the stars?
South Africa – on the way to the next bankruptcy
Jülich THTR nuclear waste soon on the streets?
Interest in mini nuclear power plants is only mini!
Climate lawsuit against RWE in Hamm!
History: “Non-violently against the nuclear power plant in Hamm-Uentrop!”
Book reviews: "Crisis, catastrophe, collapse - hope?" - "Camus: Wisdom without a slotted spoon"
“Green” hydrogen: colonial energy? - No thanks!
The consequences of the climate catastrophe and the lack of gas deliveries from Russia have led to hectic activities on numerous levels in order to produce more energy in a climate-neutral, sustainable and environmentally friendly manner in the future. This is supposed to happen primarily with supposedly green hydrogen. Hamm is also to be connected to the hydrogen core network. “Things can't get any better” was the headline in the Westfälische Anzeiger (WA) on November 16th. – Really not?
However, “green” hydrogen, which is often much praised by the public, is problematic as an energy source because its conversion results in losses of between 20 and 40 percent. There would be an additional energy loss of between 15 and 25 percent during processing and transport.
In addition, “green” hydrogen must be viewed critically because it cannot be produced in sufficient quantities in the Federal Republic of Germany, so it has to be imported in large quantities from the global south. However, energy and raw material consumption would have to be significantly reduced in order to achieve the targeted climate goals and to postpone or at least mitigate some of the coming disasters, tipping points and collapses.
Imperial way of life
However, all signs indicate that energy and raw material consumption, as well as the consumption of goods and the fixation on car traffic, will remain very high. Basically, according to this model, business should continue as before with more alternative energy used. Only the type of energy production would then be changed in this “imperial way of life”.
The hydrogen agreements that have been initiated with the countries in Africa and Latin America are perpetuating centuries-old unjust power and exploitation relationships between the colonial powers and colonies. Now, of all people, those who are suffering from this development in the global south are supposed to help those responsible for the climate catastrophe from the global north out of trouble by producing and supplying “green” hydrogen in order to still ensure a comfortable standard of living for them in the event of future disasters.
The Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) has already initiated hydrogen “cooperation” with Southern Africa (2 member states, SADC) and West Africa (16 member states, ECOWAS) under the label “H15Atlas-Africa Project”. The ministry presents future development as a win-win situation for both sides. Socio-economic well-being, job creation and reducing dependence on fossil fuels are all promised.
But the question is what this cooperation will look like in the future, who has the money and the say, determines the goals and decides which affected groups will be included on site.
research center Julich
The entire hydrogen project is managed and coordinated by the Jülich Research Center, which has often proven in recent decades that it works in close cooperation with energy companies and dictatorial states to promote and develop large-scale technological and inhumane projects (e.g. nuclear power plants). that are planned and enforced from above. The FZ Jülich is therefore left with the preliminary decision on the “suitability of land areas for renewable energies and hydrogen infrastructure” as well as the assessment of the “socio-political context and development opportunities”.
The five-person national project group is “selected from various relevant organizations”. By whom and who decides remains nebulous. Furthermore, this project group reports to a "regional technical committee. The committee brings together the contributions from the various countries and represents the interests of the region in both technical and other (!) respects. This is also reflected in the composition of the committee, which works together with the German working group of Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH to carry out the project. Project groups and committees set up that are directly dependent on the FZ Jülich and therefore on the interests of the German federal government clearly show that decisions are not made on the basis of equality!
The current sustainable land management by small farmers is being destroyed by land grabbing and displacement, as numerous examples from recent years show.
The FZ Jülich announced in 2021 that, according to its findings, 33 percent of the land area in the West African Economic Community (ECOWAS) would be suitable for photovoltaic systems and 76 percent for onshore wind turbines. The dimensions of the planned expropriations become very clear here. The European public is only too happy to give the false impression that northern and western Africa mainly have large, sparsely populated and unused deserts that could easily be equipped with large-scale solar systems.
The Souliate women's fight against this land grab has become known beyond Morocco. Around 3000 hectares of land was stolen from the Amazigh communities in 2016 to build a solar power plant in Ouarzazate. In this dry area, an immense amount of water is also used to cool and flush the solar panels. This will worsen the consequences of climate change in Morocco.
European governments and corporations invoke the supposed common fight against climate change in order to construct common interests between unequal contractual partners. The Algerian journalist Hamza Hamouchene says:
“The superficially good intentions that precede these large-scale renewable energy projects ultimately only gloss over the brutal forms of exploitation and robbery that drive them. “We are dealing with a familiar colonial pattern here: cheap resources (including green energy) flow freely from the global South to the rich North, while Fortress Europe puts up walls and fences designed to keep people from reaching its shores.” .
South America: Alternative energy for “motorsport”!
When Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz traveled to South America at the end of January 2023, future cooperation in the area of green hydrogen production was also discussed. In the Chilean part of Patagonia (Punta Arenas), Siemens Energy and Porsche have built the world's first commercial e-fuels (synthetic fuels) plant, supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economics.
For this purpose, thousands of wind turbines are to be built in the area of the Mapuche Indians. The intended use is remarkable: "The plan is to produce 130.000 liters of e-fuels in 2023. Porsche wants to use these in motorsports and test vehicles. The capacity of the plant is expected to grow to 55 million liters per year by the middle of the decade, and by 2027 to 550 million liters".
In Brazil, Scholz advocated signing the controversial Mercosur free trade agreement as soon as possible so that mining companies in the Amazon can supply the iron ore urgently needed by German industry for wind turbines, photovoltaic systems and the automotive industry even more cheaply than before - and thus accelerate the deforestation of the rainforest ! Although Brazil generates 78,1 percent of its electricity from renewable energies (mainly hydropower), preparations are already being made here to produce “green” hydrogen in the future and export it to Europe. With far-reaching consequences: “Wind corridors” for wind turbines in the Amazon are to be built in the state of Bahia in Brazil. This means clear-cutting on a large scale!
It can be seen that the current trade policy of the Federal Republic of Germany, with the participation of the SPD, FDP and the Greens, with its focus on one-sided import of raw materials and energy, is hardly different than that of China. To get an idea of the dimensions of the planned green hydrogen production, we should remember that, for example, 3.800 new wind turbines will be needed in the future for the extremely environmentally harmful steel production in ThyssenKrupp's blast furnaces in Duisburg.
Namibia: From concentration camps to “green” hydrogen
The Federal Republic of Germany is acting even more devastatingly in the former German colony of Namibia than in Latin America, Morocco and West Africa. A brief look into the past: The merchant Adolf Lüderitz, who was born into a wealthy Bremen family in 1834, tried to acquire land in South West Africa from 1882 onwards in order to look for mineral resources.
In 1883 he concluded a contract with the traditional leader of the Nama tribe, Kaptein Josef Frederiks II, in which five miles of land near Lüderitz were transferred to him for 100 pounds in gold and 200 rifles. Josef Frederiks assumed that the assessment would be based on an English mile of 1,6 kilometers. Lüderitz, however, preferred the Prussian mile with a length of 7,5 kilometers. The Nama chief was duped. Lüderitz repeated the same underhanded approach shortly afterwards with another purchase 20 miles inland. On Wikipedia you can read about this deceptive maneuver: "The questionable contractual basis for the acquisitions, commonly called 'Mile fraud', earned Lüderitz the nickname Lienfritz early on."
After the Nama were cheated out of a large part of their land, Lüderitz received "Reich protection" from the German government and military security on April 24, 1884. The warships "Elisabeth" and "Leipzig" brought troops ashore. From now on, "German South West Africa" was a German colony. From now on, Lüderitzort, Lüderitzbucht and Lüderitzland were marked on the maps. Since further exploitation exceeded the Bremen merchant's financial capabilities, he bequeathed these lands to the German Colonial Society for South West Africa.
This land grab didn't stop there. In the next few years, the white settlers appropriated cattle herds and grazing lands from the local Herero, San and Nama. They were increasingly driven away, so that they increasingly lost their livelihoods and had to work as cheap and rightsless wage laborers for the white farmers. From 1904 to 1908 there were uprisings that were brutally suppressed by the German military.
Thousands of people were captured and put in camps, for which the term concentration camp was used for the first time. The worst concentration camp was on the outskirts of Lüderitz on the Walfisch (half) island. Under catastrophic conditions, thousands of people who were viewed as inferior were brutally murdered by the German colonial soldiers and had to work on railway lines to secure the colonial and military infrastructure.
In the 1920s and 30s, over 30 streets in Germany were named after Lüderitz, thereby transfiguring and glorifying German colonial rule. Only in the last few years have there been initiatives to rename these streets. Even in Münster there is still a Lüderitzweg today.
Today, in Namibia, there is, confusingly, a campsite for holidaymakers on the former concentration camp site in Lüderitz Bay. While there is a large memorial in the neighborhood to 14 German colonial soldiers who died of illness, there was nothing to remind us of the existence of the concentration camp. It was only in April 2023 that the Society for Threatened Peoples, in consultation with the surviving descendants of the Namibian victims, financed a worthy memorial stone.
After its independence in 1990, Namibia played an important role as a raw material supplier for international corporations: diamonds, copper and especially uranium; This newsletter reported on this in detail. The local population did not benefit from this and had to live with the environmental damage caused.
Quantity fraud
In December 2022, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck traveled to the country with the largest business delegation that had ever visited Namibia. The Green politician signed the declaration of intent for the construction of “one of the world’s largest green hydrogen plants”. The location for this will be Lüderitz and the surrounding area.
Habeck told the German-language Namibian "Allgemeine(n) Zeitung" (AZ): "The focus is that we - if desired - support Namibia in developing clean, reliable and inexpensive renewable energy sources. If Namibia then generates a surplus of these energy sources "We would really like to import these products (ammonia)". Ammonia is a more transportable derivative of hydrogen and is used in the chemical industry for the production of artificial fertilizer. It would therefore be unsuitable for an ecological transformation in agriculture.
dimensions
In Namibia, with only 2,3 million inhabitants, one of the largest green hydrogen plants in the world is being built and Habeck says that if Namibia still has some energy left, Germany would be happy to take the rest. This is a grotesque reversal of dimensions, as we will see. After the "mileage fraud" of 1883, there is now a major "quantity fraud" at the expense of the Namibian population. Only a third of the rural population has an electricity connection. First of all, power lines would have to be built. The planned 500 wind turbines and an additional 40 square kilometers of solar systems comprise an investment volume of around 9,4 billion dollars, i.e. the same amount as Namibia's gross domestic product. The amount of electricity produced would be equivalent to around ten large conventional power plants.
Since the Namibian state is involved in the investments with 24 percent and takes out loans from European banks, there is a risk of a debt trap if something goes wrong. It is well known that the supposedly green hydrogen has catastrophically high conversion losses and is associated with exorbitant transport costs. This will be a big problem on the long route from Namibia to Europe.
The population is being offended
Bertchen Kohrs, chairman of Earthlife Namibia, criticized the haste, incomplete tenders and the lack of transparency with which the hydrogen project was to be carried out in cooperation with the ruling party Swapo: "The Namibian population was dumbfounded. (... ) A democratic approach looks different”. Criticism also comes from the Landless People's Movement (LPM), which is a newer political party that forms the regional government in the affected areas and is also represented in the federal parliament: "The LPM has accused the government of supporting the regional administrations in the south of the country in the development of the planned hydrogen industry and oil exploration. (...) At the same time, both the regional council and the local authorities would be excluded from the talks. They are also outside the deal with Hyphen Hydrogen Energy for the hydrogen project in the Tsau Khaeb National Park Seibeb accused the government of hiding and spoke of "neo-colonialism by Germany".
RWE
Hyphen Hydrogen Energy is a company registered in Namibia. Shareholders include the German energy company Enertrag, which has its headquarters in Brandenburg - where the Prussian miles come from. The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), Namibia's largest opposition party, fears that the large amounts of investment "would only benefit politically well-connected individuals" and an increase in corruption. PDM party leader McHenry Venaani criticizes the awarding of a 40-year contract to Hyphen Hydrogen Energy: "How is it possible that a six-month-old company with no track record whatsoever receives the largest government contract in the history of our country?" Hyphen has already concluded purchase agreements for hydrogen with the energy company RWE.
Ecological consequences
The planned gigantic industrial facility will be 100 km long and 80 km wide and will be located in the middle of the Tsau/Khaeb (restricted area) national park, right next to Lüderitz. In recent decades, an important nature reserve has emerged from the former diamond mining area, in which "an endemic, exceptional fauna and flora develops that is unique on our planet," writes Kohrs. "The area is home to 20 percent of all plant species in Namibia on just 2 percent of the country's area." Conservationists were not involved in the decision-making process and ecological concerns were not taken into account.
Namibia is the driest country south of the Sahara. Under these extreme conditions, it becomes difficult to provide the necessary large quantities of treated water for the production of hydrogen. The expensive seawater desalination plants also still have to be built and would pollute the environment with large amounts of salt brine. Under these conditions, water would become scarce and water prices would rise. The dimensions are gigantic. "A project planned in Namibia takes up a fifth of the Tsau Khaeb National Park - that's more than five times the size of the federal state of Hamburg," says Professor Franziska Müller from the University of Hamburg.
To make matters worse, a deep-sea port still has to be built in the Bay of Lüderitz, not far from the former concentration camp, for the ocean-going ships that will take in the hydrogen and transport it to Germany.
Social imbalance
Hyphen is trying to present the planned hydrogen production as a win-win situation. During the five-year construction phase, 15.000 jobs are to be created and an additional 12.500 mostly local skilled workers are to be stationed in the small, sleepy town of Lüderitz with a total of 3.000 residents. Housing shortages and a lack of sanitary infrastructure, schools and roads are inevitable because the Namibian state is unable to solve these problems.
Franziska Müller and Johanna Tunn criticize that precarious and exploitative working and accommodation conditions will be the result and that civil society and the trade unions, as essential actors of these changes, are not involved in the decision-making processes. It is unclear how several thousand local skilled workers without existing training positions can be qualified in such a short time in this poorly populated country. What this rapid energy policy action means is that only a few positive employment effects can be expected for the population.
The Climate Neutrality Foundation's final report from 2022 fears: "Nevertheless, various challenges may arise during implementation and part of the population may resist the project. The composition of the population could change significantly during the course of the project, as well-trained specialists are predominantly required. "The local population would not benefit directly from the Hyphen project. On the contrary: the economic change resulting from the project could result in higher prices for local people."
Given the many hurdles that need to be overcome, it is uncertain whether construction of the facilities can begin in 2027 as planned. After all, countless laws in Namibia still have to be adjusted or negotiated and passed beforehand in order to create a legal framework for this gigantic project.
Alternatives
Up to $2040 billion will be needed by 190, which gives a rough idea of the planned dimensions. It would certainly make more sense to at least wait for the experience of smaller hydrogen projects in Namibia before embarking on this large-scale project. In principle, however, it would be better to build decentralized wind and solar systems in Namibia. But this project is not about the people of Namibia. It is more about keeping the hunger for energy and the economic system in the Federal Republic of Germany, which is geared towards waste and growth, running in the future.
Manfred Fishick, President of the renowned Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, has proven that green hydrogen produced in the Federal Republic of Germany would ultimately be cheaper and more ecological with a consistent expansion of alternative energy than to produce hydrogen at great expense in Namibia and then reduce it by half to transport the globe. The hydrogen produced in Namibia would come far too late for a timely energy transition in the Federal Republic of Germany. But because ecological transformation is encountering many obstacles here in the Federal Republic of Germany, Economics Minister Habeck is actually pursuing a policy with a crowbar in his relationship with Namibia, despite his cheap rhetoric, and is thus falling into old colonial patterns.
This article was partially published in the daily newspaper “Neues Deutschland” (ND). Detailed versions with 39 references can be found in the following articles in the magazine “Grassroots Revolution”:
"Everything green? "Energy colonialism through hydrogen cooperation"
http://www.machtvonunten.de/?view=article&id=33:alles-gruen&catid=20:atomkraft-und-oekologie
“(Post)colonialism in Namibia: From concentration camps to green hydrogen”
China: HTR future in the stars?
I wrote about the Chinese government honoring Chinese scientist Wang Dazong for his co-development of high-temperature reactors in the last issue. He was a visiting scientist at the Forschungszentrum Jülich and at the RWTH Aachen and was largely responsible for the 10 MW research reactor in Beijing and for the two 100 MW HTRs in Shangdong near the University of Tsinghua that recently went into operation.
Now an asteroid has even been named after Wang Dazong. It has a diameter of 2,9 kilometers, was registered in 1995 and is now referred to as “192353 Wangdazhong”. It is still unclear whether the two HTR-PM reactors in Shandong are really as successful as the honor might suggest, because the reports from the otherwise very lively Chinese propaganda machine have become fewer and less substantial.
On August 1, 2023, the nuclear-friendly news service WNN repeated a report from December 9, 2022 that the two HTR units would lay the “foundation stone” for future commercial operation of this reactor line. But that's it. Even the “Gaufrei” homepage, which is sometimes filled with operator information, wrote in October 2023: “The Chinese TRISO HTR-PM has now been running online for almost two years. Apparently with reduced temperature in order to extensively test all situations. We currently only receive a sparse amount of information.”
South Africa – on the way to the next bankruptcy
South Africa has burned its fingers badly on the high-temperature reactor in the past. Around one billion euros were invested in the development of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), only to have to officially admit in 2009 that the technology was too immature and the project was a few sizes too big and too expensive for this country (1 ). Since then there have been several half-hearted attempts to revive this failed technology, even though there is enough sun and wind available in South Africa.
Interested parties are now trying again. On June 23, 2023, WNN and in German “Technik-Smartphone-News” reported that in South Africa the newly founded company Stratek Global wants to build a small modular HTMR 100 with only 35 MW output, following on from the old preparatory work on the PBMR. This reactor would be no larger than a football field and could be used anywhere. Fuel would be graphite-coated TRISO spherical fuel elements. It should only take five years to complete.
In the management team, not only a former manager of the state energy company Eskom, Francois Mellett, stands out, but above all the boss of the company, Dr. Kelvin Kemm. He was a scientist at the state-owned Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (Nesca), now calls himself a corporate strategy consultant and extols the benefits of nuclear power in videos and at many events.
But some of his previous activities also raise suspicion. He often conducts You Tube videos and interviews in close cooperation with LaRouche's obscure pro-nuclear sect, whose German offshoots are the BÜSO (2), which is also running in the parliamentary elections, and the so-called Schiller Institute. He obviously feels very comfortable in this environment that spreads conspiracy theories. The Schiller Institute announced it for an internet conference on June 26, 2021 as follows:
“What followed was an impressive list of international speakers refuting the apocalyptic predictions of the “climate change lobby” and calling for an end to the Malthusian campaign against fossil fuels: Kelvin Kemm, South African nuclear physicist and former chairman of the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa, on “One Engineer’s approach to energy and “renewables”
That basically says it all. It is also noticeable that Kemm likes to be photographed with military leadership from the Ministry of Defense. There he holds seminars on nuclear power. Military personnel from Egypt, Namibia, Tanzania, etc. are added. This is certainly not a coincidence. Military and “peaceful” uses of nuclear power are two sides of the same coin. South Africa had five atomic bombs during apartheid times and would like to play a larger role on the international stage in the future - including within the framework of the BRICS group of states.
(2) https://www.reaktorpleite.de/nr-128-november-09.html
Jülich THTR nuclear waste soon on the streets?
The small THTR experimental reactor in Jülich was decommissioned in 1988. Since then, the 300.000 radioactive fuel balls have been stored there in 152 castors. Now they are to be taken via the motorway to the interim storage facility in Ahaus, 170 kilometers away, where the nuclear waste from Hamm is already stored. A second test drive without radioactive cargo took place on November 21st and 22nd with a large police presence. 150 people and 20 farmers with tractors demonstrated in Ahaus. There were also protests in Jülich and at motorway bridges. The testcaster's journey turned into a big police show: several dozen emergency vehicles, hundreds, special forces and a helicopter accompanied the truck over the highways, and ten more were waiting in Ahaus.
Peter Bastian from the Münsterland Action Alliance points out that Castoren are already around 30 years old. “The Castor containers were originally designed for 40 years, but they will have already achieved this lifespan by 2030. What happens next is completely unclear. No conditioning or repackaging of nuclear waste is possible in Ahaus. The NRW nuclear regulator apparently does not have this in mind in all the formal steps that it oversees,” he explains. “That's why we criticize every single one of the planned 152 Castor transports and will accompany them with protests.” The entire effort and costs would be negligible
The anti-nuclear power initiatives are clearly better invested in a new, safest possible interim storage facility in Jülich.
Info: https://sofa-ms.de/
Interest in mini nuclear power plants is only mini!
NuScale and the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems consortium announced that they have given up the development and construction of Small Modular Reactors (SMR) in Idaho (USA). The reason was the growing costs and the dwindling interest of energy companies in committing to the technology in the long term. The reactor design was the only one approved by the US nuclear regulator. The termination of development is all the more spectacular.
https://jungle.world/artikel/2023/46/atomkraft-rueckschlag-usa-das-tote-pferd
Climate lawsuit against RWE in Hamm!
RWE is one of the largest CO2 emitters in Europe and is responsible for 0,47% of global historical greenhouse gas emissions. Saúl Luciano Lliuya - an Andean farmer and mountain guide from Peru - and with him over 50.000 residents of the Andean city of Huaraz are acutely threatened by a tidal wave due to the consequences of global warming. A glacial lake above the city has grown threateningly due to glacier melt. An ice avalanche could cause the lake to overflow and trigger a destructive tidal wave. Saúl demands that the company contribute to the costs of protective measures at the glacier lake in order to protect Huaraz from a flood disaster - the equivalent of 17.000 euros - in accordance with its share in the climate crisis. An oral hearing of the lawsuit took place at the Higher Regional Court in 2017. The trial will continue in Hamm in spring 2024. As an "accompanying program" there are several rallies and activities with music taking place in Hamm. Info:
https://rwe.climatecase.org/de
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%C3%BAl_Luciano
Car madness in Hamm
On January 1, 2023, 48,8 million cars were registered in Germany (WA September 6, 9). In order to slow down climate change, this number would have to be reduced by at least half in the next few years. Almost 2023 cars were also registered in Hamm in the last 12 months (WA November 30.000th, 8), although Hamm ranks at the lower end of purchasing power in municipalities nationwide. There is still enough money for cars. - And this despite the fact that there are numerous campaigns by environmentalists in Hamm to encourage people to switch to cycling and public transport. Is that all for the cat? The consequences of such behavior are obvious.
History: “Non-violently against the nuclear power plant in Hamm-Uentrop!”
Documentation of 19 episodes of the series “No Nuclear Power Plant in Uentrop” (1975 – 1978) by Theo Hengesbach in the magazine “Information Service for Non-Violent Organizers”.
With these texts we begin a highly informative journey into the very beginnings of the resistance against the THTR, which initially had a difficult time in the very conservative Hamm, but then gained noticeable momentum and led to its shutdown after 14 years. Important foundations for this success were laid in the very first years by focusing on understandable communication with the population and comprehensible, carefully prepared and well-founded non-violent actions, which were constantly and self-critically reflected upon.
“The coup in Chile and the solidarity movement in Hamm”
The “Left Forum Hamm” event on the 50th anniversary of the putsch in Chile with the Münster group Contraviento in the AWO Bürgerkeller in Hamm on September 30, 2023 was well attended and very well received. I also have a small exhibition there with original documents from this time. A detailed article and documentary can be viewed here:
Article: “EU and Mercosur – that is pure exploitation! The planned free trade agreement destroys livelihoods.”
Agriculture and extractivism
Book reviews:
“Crisis, catastrophe, collapse – hope?”
(Pablo Servigne, Raphaël Stevens: "How everything can collapse. Handbook of collapsology")
“Camus: Wisdom without a slotted spoon”
(Holger Vanicek: “The disruption. Albert Camus' dance under the sword”)
Dear readers!
This year, the various crises in the areas of climate, war and disasters came to a dramatic head. An important event gets a little lost in the media hype, but also in our self-perception. The last nuclear power plants in Germany were shut down a good six months ago. This is a great success for the citizens' initiatives, which pushed through the nuclear phase-out in a decades-long, tough fight not only against industrial interests, but also against all parties! And their early commitment to alternative energy has at the same time laid the foundation for the fact that alternatives to coal and nuclear are now so developed in terms of climate protection that if they were consistently implemented, something like hope could arise, if it weren't for the resistance of those who died yesterday. And of course nuclear plants in Gronau and Lingen are still in operation and the final storage issues for nuclear waste have not been “solved”. So there is still plenty to do.
But we should still sit back and smile in a quiet moment and watch from an inner distance at how the pro-nuclear Rumpelstiltskin in the cesspool of anti-social agitation groups are still raging, complaining and ruthlessly agitating because of their defeat. We won our battle even against such people! There has never been such a success by a social movement in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany and for once we can be proud of that.
And we should pass on our experiences to the climate movement, because climate protection is the central challenge of the future. This is also why the “Internationale of War Opponents” (IDK) Berlin will be releasing in the next few weeks the much-noticed booklet “Civil Disobedience and Democracy” written by Theo Hengesbach in 1979. Considerations using the example of the ecology movement” with a foreword and afterword by Michael Schroeren and me. I'll come back to that.
For work on 'THTR circular', 'reaktorpleite.de' and 'Map of the nuclear world' we need up-to-date information, energetic, fresh comrades-in-arms under 100 (;-) and donations. If you can help, please send a message to: info@reaktorpleite.de
Donation appeal
- The THTR circular is published by the 'BI Environmental Protection Hamm' and is 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
Usage: THTR Rundbrief
IBAN: DE31 4105 0095 0000 0394 79
BIC: WELADED1HAM
***
