The THTR Circulars from 2006

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THTR Circular No. 108, August 2006

Lippesee-a.de:

Great citizens can now even calculate!

One hundred and twenty-five times a million makes a total of € 125 million. And since every child knows that everything will be much more expensive than planned anyway: 50 percent surcharge! That was too much even for the hammer Michel and that's why 57 percent voted against the Lippesee. Hardly anyone expected this clear result.

Was it because of the pro Lippesee disagreement who, as the "chairman of the house and property association", revealed to all those who could see what his intentions were? Was it the infinite amount of money that was more than obviously invested in an overly brazen election campaign: expensive color advertisements in the WA on page one every day, stupid detergent advertising posters (or was it PampersAdvertising?) On every other tree; completely one-sided, rampant whacking on the part of the city of Hamm at the expense of taxpayers ??

Or was the forced special deployment of highly endowed and compliant hordes of mercenaries looking for new fields of action and benefices to be raised yawed, just as revealingly egotistical as despicable ?? Perhaps it was also due to the "glorious four", that is to say, to those four mayors who, in the last two weeks before the vote, caused many to ring the alarm bells through their PR work and let the last sleepyhead sit up and take notice? Obviously, in the eyes of many citizens, all of the rubbish that lord mayors dumped and had to share in the last four decades accumulated into an unsightly, stinking sewer, also known as the Lippesee.

Ultimately, we shouldn't forget our local Monopoly newspaper, whose reporting on this topic would be an understatement. Only the letters to the editor were "balanced". Unforgettable how this paper agitated Marion Siebert, who was obviously in a terrier mood, at some people who, admirably calm, almost shy and reserved, only asked a few critical questions and voiced a few concerns.

And yet it was good the way it all turned out. Otherwise the majority would not have noticed on which side power and arrogance were operating. - Are the results hopeful? Will Hammer citizens no longer fall for one-sided opinion-making or, more broadly, will they soon refuse to read or subscribe to them at all? - That would be asking too much. That's just the way he is, our average hamster. Will he attack ruling politics more confidently in the future? We will see.

Obviously, Mayor Hunsteger-Petermann is fed up with all too much co-determination by the Hammer citizens. As was to be read in the TAZ-NRW on July 25, 7, as chairman of the local political association of the NRW-CDU, he vigorously advocated a eight-year term from Lord Mayors. With this move, the municipal parliaments in North Rhine-Westphalia would be overthrown and even more Sun Kings and, if not, big populists could reside autocratically at the top of the city. The next step towards the re-establishment of the communal monarchy is only a matter of time.

Horst Blume

As we have already reported in THTR circular no. 104, the smaller research THTR (AVR) in Jülich, which was shut down in 1988, is currently being dismantled and dismantled in a complex process.

In the meantime, the cost of this is no longer given as 400 million euros, but more and more often it is 500 million euros. The dismantling in Jülich is carried out by the federally owned company Energiewerke Nord (EWN). This EWN has been operating an interim storage facility for low and medium level waste a few kilometers from the holiday island of Rügen in Lublin since 1998. It bears the name Interim storage facility north (ZLN). The scope and period of time were previously limited: 6.700 tons could be stored there for up to two years. And only nuclear waste from the eastern nuclear power plants in Lubmin and Greifswald.

In the meantime, the EWN has applied to extend the so-called "buffer storage" to 10 years, to increase the storage capacity to 15.000 tons and to be allowed to process nuclear waste from the west of the republic. The EWN argued that the 235 million euro facility should be better utilized with additional nuclear waste. However, the state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania does not want this and has refused to approve the extension. On the other hand, the federally owned EWN, incidentally with a DGB functionary as deputy chairman of the supervisory board, sued the administrative court in Greifswald and was ruled on June 21, 2006. "The danger to the interim storage facility, mentioned by the Ministry of the Environment (Meck.-Pomm), for example from a plane crash, is to be assigned to the residual risk," reported the "Ostsee-Zeitung" on June 22, 2006.

But there is much more to the planned expansion: The entry into the industrial use of a large-scale nuclear facility!

"In addition, the representatives of the ministry believe that the expansion of buffer storage could open up a long-term perspective for the ZLN (Zwischenlager Nord) as a nuclear waste storage facility. maybe even international business partners. The facility already has the necessary infrastructure - in addition to a newly developed port, there is also a connection to the rail network. The Energiewerke website states that the interim storage facility, with its capacities and technical facilities, is the only facility in the world Art '. However, the large capacities are apparently the result of a deliberate deception of the authorities: During the approval process, the EWN specified far greater safety distances between the atomic containers than was prescribed. The distances were subsequently corrected to the minimum - this resulted in space f for additional garbage. " (From: ND of June 9, 6)

So now nuclear waste can be stored and conditioned for up to 10 years in Lubmin. This also includes large components and complete reactor pressure vessels. Lightly stressed parts are then scrapped after appropriate treatment or disposed of in landfills. Radioactive components that exceed the limit values ​​must be taken back by the supplier after the storage period has expired. The nuclear waste interim storage facility is located in the immediate vicinity of the Greifswald Bodden and the tourist islands of Rügen and Usedom. (Incidentally, this is also the birthplace of the writers Wolfgang Koeppen and Hans Fallada ...)

The "Ostsee-Zeitung" consequently had a full-page headline: "Fear of the tourist meltdown"and wrote on June 22nd, 6 in her comment:" The companies want to secure up to 2006 jobs in the unemployed region. Ten years of nuclear waste - ten years of work. This is the only way to ensure that operations cover costs. A comprehensible invoice. But does it really open? The region lives mainly from tourism. And that could suffer considerable damage to its image. A nuclear toilet for the nation would mean the tourism meltdown. Nobody likes to vacation in the immediate vicinity of shining legacies. "- And not to mention the constant life in this dangerous area ...

Of course, it is not the first time that this region has had to get to know THTR nuclear waste. As early as 1998, a "Probecastor" from the decommissioned THTR Hamm-Uentrop visited the Federal Office for Materials Testing (BAM) in Greifswald. We remember: The castors have been stored in Ahaus since 1995 and began to rust. During the investigation in Greifswald, water residues were found in the sealing area of ​​the primary cover. The sealing system no longer worked properly; the important safety barrier was gone (see also THTR-RB No. 61). Note: If nuclear waste comes once, there will be more often nuclear waste.

Horst Blume

The small town of Geesthacht at the gates of Hamburg is well known to both children and nuclear critics for different reasons, but connected in some detours. Geesthacht is the home of the Diddl mouse.

The darling of the 7 to 12 year olds has huge feet and ears (mutations?), Three hairs, dungarees and a predominantly rosy worldview. This is the headquarters of the company that has been making an annual turnover of around 1990 million euros since 150 with a vast number of Diddl utensils of all kinds, "naïve" slogans on postcards in a special Diddl language.

In the same place is the Krümmel nuclear power plant and the Society for Nuclear Energy Utilization in Shipbuilding and Shipping (GKSS), which operates a nuclear research reactor here. Since 1990, 16 children in the Elbmarsch have developed leukemia; four of them have already died. It is the largest accumulation of blood cancer in one place in the world. "You are the direct hit that landed in the middle of my heart!" Said the Diddl mouse once. While searching for the mouse-mysterious cause, some investigators came across an incident on September 12, 1986, when alarmingly high levels of radioactivity were measured at the Krümmel nuclear power plant. The limit was exceeded 500 times.

Since a breakdown in the nuclear power plant could exceptionally be ruled out, the neighboring GKSS was suspected of having carried out secret nuclear experiments for the production of mini-bombs, which had resulted in a serious accident. Various witnesses present in the area saw the explosion.

Since 1992, tiny spheres with a diameter of about half a millimeter have been found in the vicinity of Geesthacht. They contain uranium, thorium and plutonium. These ingredients provide important information about the fuel used and the research subject. The responsible state governments in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein tried for 15 years to cover up the scandal and referred to Chernobyl radioactivity and "fly ash" from worldwide above-ground atomic bomb tests. Obviously, the lives of children weigh little in relation to the interests of the nuclear and arms industry.

Independent experts found that the pellets had already been found near the Hanau nuclear fuel element factory, where an explosion also occurred in 1987. Here the spherical fuel elements for the 1989 decommissioned Thorium high temperature reactor (THTR) manufactured in Hamm-Uentrop. The globules were part of his nuclear fuel. Several scientists suspect that Geesthacht was researching a further development of high-temperature and hybrid reactors in connection with hydrogen bombs. The GKSS wanted - so the assumption - by laser bombardment of these spheres wanted to trigger nuclear mini explosions.

The military components This research is of course breathtakingly unbelievable and extremely exciting. This also explains why the authorities would rather let the whole Abrakadiddledabra affair disappear into oblivion. But after various sensational programs on ZDF and 3Sat in the last few weeks, Professor Blubberpeng is working flat out in his test laboratory to solve leukemia deaths. On behalf of the children, the decommissioning of the nuclear facilities is urgently required - and fluttering!

From the monthly newspaper "Graswurzelrevolution" No. 311; www.grassroots.net

Strangely enough, it occurs to no one in Hamm to research the effects of the THTR microbeads in this region, although over 8000 larger THTR fuel elements with over 24 million microbeads were damaged during operation and in 1986 there was an accident with radioactive "releases" came (see also THTR circular no. 82).

Horst Blume

At the beginning of last year, almost a dozen states in Washington signed a cooperation agreement to further develop the fourth generation of nuclear power plants, which also include high-temperature reactors. Great Britain was one of them, although in 2003 a white paper called nuclear energy an "unattractive option".

So far, 23 nuclear power plants have been built in Great Britain, twelve of which are still on the grid and cover 19 percent of the energy demand. All old nuclear power plants are expected to be shut down by 2023 because they are outdated. The debate over the UK's future energy supply is well underway, driven by fears of future dependencies and the commitment to reduce climate-damaging carbon dioxide.

A slow change of heart towards a pro-nuclear power policy had been on the horizon for some time (see THTR-RB 107). Last autumn the Labor government commissioned a new energy report. But in the middle of the preparations for the announcement of the new options, an unfavorable event occurred. At the request of Greenpeace and a citizens' initiative, the nuclear safety authority had to make various reports available to the public, in which there was talk of cracks in the reactor core in several nuclear power plants. Even internally, stronger controls, shutdowns and immediate shutdown of certain reactors were called for. The fact that the existence of the cracks was known for years but kept quiet turned into a scandal. The announcement of the planned nuclear renaissance had to be postponed for a few weeks. On June 10, 2006 it became known that France and Great Britain wanted to work more closely together on the technical development of future nuclear reactors and on armaments projects. On July 13, 2006 the time had come: Almost all national newspapers reported the turnaround of the Blair government, which has now officially become known. A 216-page report "The Energy Challenge" gave the green light to the construction of a new generation of nuclear power plants.

Nuclear power plants are attested here as having an "outstanding necessity" for the future. "With this step, critics are deprived of the opportunity to slow down the approval process for new plants with the argument that they are not necessary. In the future, only objections that relate to local conditions will count. which was approved in Great Britain, the approval process took six years, in the future it should only be three years, "wrote the FAZ. It is believed that these plants will still not be able to go into operation before 2017. The costs for the new building are to be drastically reduced, because: "The new nuclear power plants have to be applied for, planned, financed and built exclusively by the private sector. The British government does not want to grant any subsidies or grants" (FAZ). If you believe it ... there is always a loophole. The six to ten planned plants would require up to 30 billion euros. The private sector is to negotiate with the government which type of nuclear power plants belong to the chosen ones, which, as is well known, concluded new HTR cooperation and further development contracts last year.

Manfred Kriemer, ecology editor at TAZ in the 80s, does not consider all of this to be worrying. On July 15, he wrote his article "Hanging in the atomic shaft" in the TAZ: "And Tony Blair? His new energy report, which was presented this week, cannot be misunderstood as a nuclear program. He confesses that he remains vague about new nuclear projects but also that nuclear power should play a role in the future energy mix. " And refers to the high costs of new nuclear power plants.

With his daring interpretation, however, he even hides reports that were in "his" TAZ two days before: "The German group Eon and its French competitor EDF were already talking about potential investors. and get involved in the approval process for new nuclear power plants, 'said Paul Golby, Head of Eon UK "! "Zeit" also wrote two days before Kriener's dubious sedative pill: "However, experts do not doubt that the major suppliers will soon stir." And the capital-friendly "Handelsblatt" refuted Kriener two days earlier: "" Vincent de Rivaz, head of the French utility EDF, professed to build nuclear power plants in Great Britain. The French, together with their subsidiary EDF Energy, are one of six large electricity and gas suppliers alongside the German groups Eon and RWE, the market leader Centrica and the two Scottish providers Scottish Power. Centrica praised the government for excluding subsidies for new nuclear power plants. "

A lack of money does not seem to be the problem for the energy companies. - But why does Kriemer come to such an assessment? And who is he serving by giving the "all-clear" so quickly? It's the same kind of "all-clear" that red-green politicians used to drive the electorate crazy by claiming that the alleged nuclear phase-out would mean the end of the nuclear industry. We now know that this was not just a disgraceful miscalculation, but a deliberate party-politically motivated deception.

On the very first day of the holiday, NRW Research Minister Pinkwart pursued his favorite pastime - filling the summer slump with a highly innovative idea: NRW should again be the location of a new THTR. "Why not?" he asked, apparently astonished, in the interview.

Almost all of the newspapers reported his second foray into the matter within a few months. The Westfälische Rundschau even on page one for three days in a row. This is how you stay in the conversation. "In the future we want to participate in international research on Generation IV reactors again" the habilitated chaos theorist trumpeted full-bodied on June 27, 6 in the WR. In order to immediately pull back: "Within 2006 hours, the minister both re-entered nuclear energy and immediately exited - purely in terms of ideas, of course" (TAZ-NRW of June 24, 27). Because now Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel stepped in as the savior of the nuclear phase-out THeaTeR-Bühne and accused him of a violation of the law: "There is not much left of the rule of law party FDP" (TAZ-NRW of June 28, 6).

In the next act, the NRW Chamber of Commerce and Industry hurried to the side of the beleaguered Pinkwart as a nuclear auxiliary force yesterday the chief executive of the IHK in NRW, Crone-Erdmann "(TAZ-NRW from 30. 6. 2006).

Was it all just the absurd theater of a dream dancer who was addicted to profile or was there more to it than that? In its commentary, the TAZ-NRW flattered the battered red-green soul, which had since vanished, with an at first glance sympathetic point of view: "Legally not feasible, politically unenforceable and technologically questionable on top of that. (...) ... makes the amateurishly planned advance even more embarrassing "(June 27, 6).

With a certain delay in letters to the editor, I offered the TAZ a different interpretation. After the obligatory listing of the years of red-green funded THTR research in the state, federal government and the EU, Pinkwart's advances are, in my opinion, entirely logical:

(...) "The further development of a reactor line usually takes one to two decades. Many unspectacular small steps have already been made quietly under red-green in NRW - declared as" safety research ". So everything has worked perfectly so far , but gradually the nuclear industry wants that take the next logical step and build a nuclear facility. And get everything ready to go when there is a black-yellow coalition in the federal government in three years. With so much continuity and sleepiness of many environmentalists over decades, Pinkwart's question about the new construction of a THTR is quite justified: Why not?" (TAZ-NRW, July 17, 7)

On July 2, 7, the unofficial CDU / FDP explanatory organ "Welt am Sonntag" declared another background for Pinkwart's initiative: "He's about them immediate securing of two chairsthat are connected to RWTH Aachen University and in Jülich, in the medium term to new research agreements with the federal government - and in the long term to not simply exclude new developments in nuclear energy from research. (...) I am committed to ensuring that two new professorships are advertised as soon as possible and that the chairs are appropriately equipped. I also want to achieve that four million euros Research aids are once again used exclusively for research into reactor safety and nuclear waste disposal '". In addition, Pinkwart seriously brought the following new nuclear power plant locations in North Rhine-Westphalia into play:" Leverkusen, Hamm-Uentrop, Gelsenkirchen-Scholven, Rees, Datteln, Paderborn, Würgassen ".

Thanks to Pinkwart, everyone is talking about the old bankruptcy reactor again. We should propose to the good man the honorary chairmanship of a THTR memorial foundation that has yet to be established.

Horst Blume

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