The THTR Circulars from 2007

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THTR Circular No. 110, January 2007

Parrot Pinkwart chatters again ...

If someone ignores the majority of those around him for quiet thoughtfulness, he is usually called a pain in the ass. However, if he has the rank of minister, he can call himself Pinkwart for Innovation. If someone like this, despite terrifying catastrophes like Chernobyl, combines unconditional belief in technology with a ludicrous mania for feasibility with a nuclear blinker, he will incessantly talk about the need to de-ideologize research policy in order to divert attention from his own ideology: the pinkwartization of all areas of life. That means a solid interest policy and waste of public money for the profit of the corporations, especially the energy companies.

A Jülicht shines in the darkness

Stone Age technologies that have long been written off, such as high-temperature reactors (HTRs), are being put on the financial drip again despite the increasing smell of decay. Because the Pinkwart has been loyal to them for decades and lights an expensive Jülicht every week to commemorate them, so that the darkness in the research landscape softens and it shines brightly again - as before. Everyone immediately recognizes that the Minister of Innovation is particularly innovative here!

In his efforts to land new professorships and new money for THTR technology from the 50s, he made new friends, as the Kölner Stadtanzeiger wrote on St. Nicholas Day (December 06.12.2006, XNUMX): "The head of the Jülich Research Center, Professor Achim Bachem and the rector of the TH, Professor Burkhard Rauhut, welcomed the agreement with the state. The expiry of the chairs threatened a major loss of competence. One of the professorships had been vacant for five years. Nuclear energy research needed a new perspective to attract young people To attract people to this field, said Professor Bachem. "

Bachem, the new chairman of Forschungszentrum Jülich since October 04.10.2006, 50, originally comes from space research and "discrete mathematics", which is really what it is called. And he knows how to get hold of new funds and projects. After all, he brought the European Galileo control center to Oberpfaffenhofen (!). He will certainly be able to do a lot for the common nuclear cause in the future and is already beginning to trumpet the following grotesque joke on the occasion of the 11.12.2006th anniversary of the FZJ on December XNUMX, XNUMX: "The scientific highlight was the development of the THTR - the safest to date Reactor type worldwide. " The citizens of Hamm, who were able to experience this security up close in their own city, will certainly be very amused when they hear this.

Nostalgic and expensive

Pinkwarts acknowledged that the NRW Ministry for Nostalgia, Science, Research and Technology was quoted in its press release from December 05.12th. In 2006 the close alliance with the nuclear ideologists of the 50s and 60s: "'It would be frivolous and irresponsible to carry out the research work of Professor Schulten (RWTH Aachen University in cooperation with FZ Jülich) in the area of ​​the high-temperature reactor HTR and the in To give up the competencies that have been built up in this context, 'said the Rector of RWTH Aachen University, Prof. Burkhard Rauhut. " And all of this is going to cost the energy companies and their state a lot, as you can read on: "RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Jülich, together with the support of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, will fill three professorships - unlike what was planned under the previous government - and an additional one set up another professorship. "All four researchers will also work at Forschungszentrum Jülich according to the tried and tested cooperation models. At the same time, the companies RWE Power AG and ThyssenKrupp Steel AG announced that they would be supporting the furnishing of the chairs with 3,5 million euros. (...) To this end, RWTH Aachen University will fill three professorships (reactor safety and reactor technology; modeling and simulations in nuclear technology; supply and disposal of nuclear fuels); Forschungszentrum Jülich will immediately fill a fourth professorship for nuclear waste management and waste treatment. RWE Power AG and ThyssenKrupp Steel AG are investing a total of 2007 million euros in initial equipment and research infrastructure from 3,5. "The Kölner Stadtanzeiger adds:" According to the minister, the state will finance two of the chairs with a total of 240 euros per year. "

Innovative in fundraising

Of course, the companies mentioned do not spend the 3,5 million euros completely selflessly. The ThyssenKrupp subsidiary Uhde (Dortmund) is already earning a golden nose for the construction of a nuclear fuel element factory for the THTR in South Africa with 20 million dollars. When the nuclear business really gets going, the profit increases immeasurably. And even technology nostalgic Pinkwart is really innovative and creative, at least when it comes to fundraising, as his press release shows. "'I would like North Rhine-Westphalia to participate in the development of reactors of the fourth generation. This is about more efficient, inherently safe and less waste-to-waste reactors.' Pinkwart also referred to the possibility that, after this decision, NRW can also successfully participate in the 7th EU Research Framework Program in the field of nuclear energy research, which begins in 2007 and has a total volume of around 54 billion euros. " There is certainly a lot to be gained there.

Resurrection?

Against this renaissance of nuclear power there is now inexorable resistance in the form of a - well ?? - Press release. "In the opinion of the Greens politician Ruth Seidl, the state government is committed to nuclear power with the establishment of professorships. 'That sounds relatively harmless, but it is about a resurgence of nuclear power,' said the science policy spokeswoman. that Pinkwart is not just about safety in the long term, but about building a new generation of reactors "(TAZ NRW, December 06.12.2006, 06.12.2006). Resurrection! - What an unsuitable word for the nuclear industry, which thanks to Rotgrün never really fell flat and what a fitting word for the need for a renewed resistance from Greens and other sleepy people. But experience shows abundantly: Anyone who has once tasted the sweet poison of adaptation and betrayal of good intentions, their will and ability to resist will not be resurrected anytime soon! Therefore, the comment of the body and stomach sheet of the former do-gooders and now mostly well-heeled, the TAZ nrw of December XNUMXth, XNUMX, can be fully agreed: "Now Pinkwart is trying to turn back time. Whether at the last FDP federal party conference, in numerous newspaper interviews or at press conferences like yesterday in Düsseldorf: Pinkwart has been the top nuclear lobbyist in the republic for months. His fight for a renaissance of nuclear power is still just a rhetorical fight. But it should not be underestimated. It is time for a new anti-nuclear power plant. Move." 

After it became known that there are also people within Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) who reject the new-old nuclear course, the content of our homepage is obviously being scrutinized by certain people. This can be seen not only in the increasing number of visitors, but also in the fact that there is obviously a search for weaknesses in terms of content. It is certainly not by chance that our article "The atomic triangle", which has been mirrored the most for 30 years, from circular no. 95 became the subject of a piqued or pink-awaited demand.

A Dr. Klaus Höthker from Jülich: "I would be grateful if you would tell me about the assertion made in your article http //: www.uni-kassel.de/fb5/frieden/ themen / Atomwaffen / Blume.html that I will not go into further detail the legally convicted SS-Obersturmbannführer in Leiden (Holland) Alfred Boettcher, the (...) director of the nuclear research center Jülich ... 'would provide verifiable evidence of the conviction Address of a German university should at least have the quality that such serious claims can be substantiated. "

The man can be helped: "It's great that you think so committed! My comments on the subject of" Nazi scientists in later leading FRG institutions "are really a bit short and should be a little more detailed. In the next year I will certainly find time to make an appropriate one To write a treatise in the THTR circular. (...) I can reassure you about Boettcher. The information comes from Holger Strom's bestseller "Peaceful in the catastrophe", page 866. All members of the Bundestag and EU, Prime Ministers and At that time, research institutions received a free copy from the publisher. Your institute is sure to have a copy too. " - And it reads in addition to Boettcher: "(...) 1949 sentenced to 18 months in prison. (...) Head of the German-South African (sic!) And German-Brazilian cooperation in the field of nuclear technology."

Outlook

Pinkwart and his backers will probably keep playing their games for a while, because the anti-nuclear movement is currently far too weak to stop them. Future breaks in this ominous continuity of the nuclear research urge are most likely to be expected within the following two scenarios: On the one hand, the end of the grand coalition and the beginning of a CDU / FDP government with even more unbridled nuclear funding would arouse many people and then turn them back into direct resistance can move. On the other hand, it is unfortunately to be expected that at some point in the next few years another major incident will occur that would mobilize people and sweep politicians from Schlage Pinkwarts off the political stage with disgrace and shame. But until then, in our own interest, we should not wait and intensify the resistance today by setting up a new nuclear-critical NRW network and a targeted pinprick policy. Signals can already be heard that things are moving in this direction!

"EHR goes South Africa" ​​proudly proclaims the employee newspaper (1/2006) of Essener high pressure pipeline construction (EHR) together with the neighboring branch in Dortmund. The latest contract for the export of tubes for the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) to Cape Town in South Africa will be celebrated.

The PBMR - that is the South African name for the old Westphalian bankrupt construction thorium high temperature reactor (THTR) - is to be built there in one or two years. The relevant parts will - you hear and be amazed - come from Essen and Dortmund. In other words, those cities that are inextricably linked with the ruinous history of the THTR in the 70s and 80s: Up until the merger with RWE, Dortmund was the headquarters of the Vereinigte Elektriziätswerke, which commissioned and operated the THTR in Hamm-Uentrop. And Essen is the headquarters of RWE.
It was all a long time ago, but when it comes to profit, old connections and contacts with the companies based in Dortmund and Essen do not break off, but are cherished and looked after. With success: The Dortmund company Uhde will build parts of the nuclear fuel element factory for the PBMR in South Africa (see THTR circular no. 100 and 101). RWE NUKEM (this year sold after Advent, see THTR-RB No. 101 and 107) provides the basic engineering including the accident analyzes. And since many sides earn a lot from a nuclear power plant, the company EHR joins them. Even if nuclear power is supposed to be phased out in Germany, that doesn't bother the multinational corporations at all.

The EHR employee newspaper refers to old relationships with South Africa: "For the EHR it is no leap into the deep end, according to Chief Executive Officer Ronald Diehl, as one can fall back on the extensive experience of the former parent company Mannesmann Anlagenbau, the high-pressure pipelines in several power plants of the Region has planned and implemented. " This supported the terror regime of the apartheid state back then, who cares today?

The EHR management self-confidently refers to its own nuclear "core competence" on the company website: "Since EHR took over the activities, know-how and employees of the former Mannesmann Anlagenbau AG, we have been extremely responsive to the special requirements in nuclear technology Our specialists were significantly involved in the expansion of nuclear energy in Germany through the planning, calculation, construction, procurement, delivery, prefabrication, assembly and documentation of the pipeline systems. In addition, they handled orders for nuclear power plants all over the world with confidence. "

In the meantime, a South African EHR branch has been set up specifically for nuclear cooperation, the website says: "There are currently a number of orders and inquiries for the high-temperature piping systems in the country's PBMR project. EHR South Africa Piping Systems is 39% held by the Essen parent company via EHR German Piping Systems, 33% by the local company KOG Fabrications and 28% by the local managing director Shirley Chaukes. African employees in the company are to be qualified in an education and training project. " In March 2006, the South African business information service "Engineering News, Mining Weekly and Polity" put the agreed order volume at over 100 million euros.

A few months earlier, EHR, in a consortium with Babcock Borsic Service, received the largest order in its history for the pipelines for the reactor building from the Finnish nuclear power plant "European Pressurized Water Reactor" (ERP) with an output of 1600 MW. EHR was also asked about pipes for the ERP construction of the same type in Flamanville (France). The ever more extensive business activities and the increased financial requirements have led to new concentration processes in the industry in the last few months. As of June 16, 2006, EHR and its around 800 employees came into the hands of Bilfinger Berger AG, Mannheim. - Mannheim !! And now everyone who is familiar with the history of the HTR line will be puzzled. Here the nuclear HTR cycle closes again, because Brown, Boveri & Cie Aktiengesellschaft (BBC, later merged with Asea BBC), based in Mannheim and Switzerland, was a leading company in the development of the HTR line in the 70s and 80s , together with Babcock and Mannesmann !!

Ulrich Kirchner, author of the book "The High Temperature Reactor" (Campus Research, 1991) describes the relationships as follows: "Before that, the BBC had already worked with its subsidiary HRB (high temperature reactor construction GmbH), Deutsche Babcock Maschinenbau AG, Mannesmann Anlagenbau AG, Strabag Bau -AG and Innotec Energietechnik KG founded the HTR-100 development consortium. " (Page 171) Bilfinger Berger AG commented on its latest incorporation of EHR as follows: "With this acquisition, the Group can offer the entire value chain from planning, delivery and assembly to maintenance, servicing and overhaul from a single source for complex piping systems."

Honestly, who would have thought that? While in Germany the overwhelming majority of the sleepy "environmentalists" lull themselves into a false sense of security through an alleged nuclear phase-out, facts are created with admirable straightforwardness and consistency that national policy cannot do much to and that never lose sight of their goal, even for decades loses. And because such a nuclear activity cannot be accepted, it is now being contraindicated in Dortmund. The newly founded citizens' initiative against nuclear facilities, Contratom, distributed leaflets on "Nagasaki Day" at the beginning of August and criticized the uranium enrichment facilities in the USA, in Gronau in Westphalia, the plans in Iran - and the involvement of local companies in the construction of new high-temperature reactors in South Africa.
The clear and concise subheading of the leaflet read: "Rogue city of Dortmund". And EHR cannot leave Hamm-Uentrop either: The bustling company is supplying pipe material for 12 million euros for the gas and steam power plant (CCPP) under construction right next to the decommissioned THTR. And who knows what else is planned ...

As is well known, the schedule for the construction of the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) in South Africa was delayed somewhat. The realization is now taking on more and more concrete forms. In addition to the German companies Uhde, SGL Carbon, EHR and the scandal company NUKEM, a Spanish group is involved in the construction. Equipos Nucleares SA (ENSA), 45 percent of the company’s shares are Westinghouse, have won a $ 52 million contract to manufacture the reactor’s main pressure containment. "The pressure containment comprises the main pressurized system components of the PBMR, ie the reactor pressure vessel, the primary coolant lines and the pressure relief system. Around 2000 t of steel are to be built in. The order includes construction and manufacture, preparation for shipping, project management, quality assurance and design management The project is expected to end in May 2009 "(from: atw 3/2006). The port of export will be the Cantabrian Santander (Maliano), which borders the Basque Country. And since in Spain there is not such a dull workers "movement" as in the FRG, but one with a revolutionary tradition and current emancipatory practice, there are various starting points to put some obstacles in the way of the nuclear companies ... .

But the PBMR is not that completely undisputed within the nuclear community, as the annual nuclear technology conference 2006 in Aachen showed. There, Ulrike Läuferts (NRG Petten, Netherlands) compared the nuclear fuel cycle strategies of the European pressurized water reactor (EPR) with the PBMR. The latter has clear disadvantages in the destruction of the plutonium: "However, a larger amount of highly active waste is produced by the PBMR with high-burn fuel than in the case of the EPR with MOX or inert matrix fuel (IMF), so for reasons the waste reduction of the PBMR is not to be selected. A minimization of the transuranium elements can best be achieved with the IMF fuel in an ERP "(from: atw 8-9 / 2006). In addition, "the high burn-up fuel for a PBMR still needs to be developed".

But the Germans involved in PBMR research also had the opportunity to present their project at the annual conference. Including reprint in the nuclear house postille "atw". The authors Büttner, Brähler and Kress from the scandal company NUKEM (see THTR-RB No. 107) stated that they have been working intensively on the further development of fuel balls for South Africa since 2000. "One such sphere contains 9 g uranium with an enrichment of 10%. (...) In operation, a PBMR contains almost half a million such fuel spheres. The Pelindaba plant in South Africa is designed for the production of 270.000 to 375.000 spheres per year "(from: atw 10/2006). "The development of these fuel elements took place systematically in Germany at NUKEM" (from: atw 11/2006). The eager nuclear ball tinkerers indicated that the detailed design should be completed at the beginning of 2008 as the planned time frame, buildings and machines in 2009. The cold test should take place in mid-2010, the first criticality in 2013.

We know the expected reality from previous experience with the THTR in Hamm. Accordingly, everything can take five or ten years longer and be four times more expensive than planned ... And while you tinker with the reactor for years, every loose screw you tighten will be portrayed as a grandiose success by propaganda.

"The PBMR development has cost four billion rand (400 million euros) so far - half was borne by the state, which has pledged a further six billion rand for the next three years. , estimates the minister responsible for public companies Alec Erwin "(dpa from 12). "Our goal is to have the first reactor completed by 06.12.2006. From 2012 we want to build 2013 models with an output of 15 megawatts each over a period of 24 years," said Erwin. They are to be delivered to the state-owned Eskom electricity company as the first customer, which has reserved 165 megawatts for the mini-reactors in its long-term plan. The PBMR technology, which has been further developed from the German high-temperature reactor (HTR), is being advanced in parallel with a similar reactor type designed by China. "At the moment we are probably ahead of China," said Erwin. Both countries are linked by a cooperation agreement. With the help of German companies such as SGL Carbon and former HTR employees, South Africa has acquired the know-how for the technology and pays license fees. "German companies still have rights to the technology," said Erwin. For 4800 he announced a government decision on the envisaged resumption of uranium enrichment "(dpa from December 2007, 06.12.2006).

On its website, the German Federal Agency for Foreign Trade confirms the "massive use of resources (US $ 2,4 billion in development costs) and personnel (around 600 engineers and scientists on a full-time basis)" for the PBMR. Preliminary talks about HTR deliveries are being held with Swiss, Poles, Spaniards, Koreans, Australians, Americans and Japanese: "The Koreans have made the fundamental decision to generate hydrogen through nuclear power and are therefore very interested."

Meanwhile, on December 06.12.2006, XNUMX, the "Finanznachrichten" reported a corruption scandal involving the Nukem company in Ukraine. An employee of this clean company had promised the director of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant financial benefits for certain behavior. Perhaps one should take a closer look at Nukem's relations with South Africa?

Horst Blume

Book demo on Saturday, February 3rd from 13 p.m. in Münster (Prinzipalmarkt): Stop the uranium transports through Hamm / Münsterland to Gronau, no new nuclear waste to Ahaus, against the nuclear renaissance in North Rhine-Westphalia. - A lot has happened in the last few months, defend yourself and take a look at the homepage www.sofa-ms.de!

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