The THTR Circulars from 2007

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THTR Circular No. 112, April 2007

Nuclear "rat line": Eichmann and EHR in Argentina

The Essener high pressure pipe works (EHR) with its branch in Dortmund not only builds parts for the THTR in South Africa, but also for the Atucha 1995 nuclear power plant in Argentina, which was only 80 percent completed in 2.
The EHR is thus in an inglorious historical continuity. Because it was refugee Nazi scientists who were taken in by the authoritarian-dictatorial regime in Argentina after 1945 to be employed in military and nuclear research. Some of them came back from the "transitional quarter" after more than 10 years and held top management positions in the nuclear research centers in Jülich and Karlsruhe. The connections to Argentina were maintained for the next few decades. Likewise to the neighboring competing regional power Brazil - at that time also a military dictatorship.
Argentina and Brazil signed an international agreement in 2005 to develop the so-called fourth reactor line, which also includes the high-temperature reactor (1). You want to expand nuclear power more in the future. Significantly, both countries are now resisting “discriminatory” treatment of Iran because of the uranium enrichment plant (2). For “good” reason: the atomic bomb must always be taken into account in the supposedly peaceful use of nuclear power. Argentina and Brazil, like Iran, have pronounced nuclear power ambitions and all three have benefited in the past from the preparatory work of some Nazi scientists, which should bring Hitler the "final victory".
Right next to the “Fourth Reich”, as Argentina was called for a reason, Brazil worked on the construction of a reprocessing plant from 1983 - with the help of the Dortmund company Uhde (3), which, like the EHR, is making money on the THTR construction in South Africa.
With so much “neighborhood” and so many grown relationships, the question arises: Is this all a coincidence or are there certain historical continuities and socio-political connections that have so far been neglected?

The order

Let us return to the immediate cause of our deliberations. In February 2007 the following news could be read on the EHR homepage:
"Vamos Argentinia. In 1994 (sic!) There was already an order - at the time for Mannesmann Anlagenbau - but construction was stopped in 1995. The Atucha 2 nuclear power plant in Argentina is now due to be completed. On January 25th, Nucleoelectrica Argentina SA (NASA) and EHR signed an LOI (Letter of Intent) in Buenos Aires. The EHR will install the primary pipeline systems with the main coolant line, surgeline, moderator system and pressure maintenance system as well as the live steam inlets in the reactor building. The scope of the order also includes the delivery of assembly devices. The one-year assembly work is to start in September 2007, which will be carried out together with local Argentine assembly personnel. With immediate effect, the technical processing and planning will be carried out at the Dortmund location / plant and, from April / May, all the required project-specific welding qualifications will be carried out on the Atucha construction site. "

From the Third to the Fourth Reich

With the help of the Vatican and other helpers, countless notorious henchmen of the Nazi system found shelter in Argentina after the defeat of fascism. For example Adolf Eichmann and the concentration camp doctor Josef Mengele. However, researchers and scientists also switched from the Third to the “Fourth” Reich.
“About two hundred German scientists were active in the civil service in Argentina in the immediate post-war period, from around 1947, most of them in the research facilities of the armed forces. About a third of them found employment at Argentine universities. The number of scientists who became active in the private sector cannot be determined. As a result of research in the Berlin Document Center, it can be established that about 40 percent of those active in the civil service were members of the NSDAP. SS membership could be proven in seven. (...) About 60 percent of the scientists who emigrated to Argentina were engineers and technicians who had worked in the field of arms research and development until 1945. After the end of the war, these armaments specialists saw themselves as subject to a kind of professional ban. ”(4) - They all found a second, also spiritual home in Perón's authoritarian system.
“Perón never makes a secret of his admiration for the military achievements of the Third Reich, and the Peronist doctrine of 'Justicialismo' was strongly influenced by Fascist thought. Argentina had adhered to its traditional policy of neutrality until the last months of the war; When finally the declaration of war against Germany took place, Perón hastened to assert that this had only been done 'pro forma'. From the US point of view, Argentina was therefore not only the last refuge for war criminals in hiding, but also the place from which a 'Fourth Reich' was to be built. In this context, the Argentine recruitment of German armaments experts seemed to take on threatening dimensions. "(5)
In view of the looming defeat, the entire operation was planned by German business leaders on August 10 and 11, 1944 (6). The money for this came from the SS by stealing the last belongings and the gold teeth of the murdered concentration camp inmates. It was decided that certain scientists should flee to Argentina. In this way, as much as possible of the accumulated know-how in nuclear and missile research could be saved for the future Germany.

Nazi know-how for Argentine nuclear facilities

The following breathtaking and exciting report by the Brazilian historian Otto Buchsbaum comes from the small brochure “Atomkraft und Faschismus” (7). Only those excerpts are reproduced here that are relevant for the Argentine Atucha nuclear power plant and the associated federal German nuclear export entanglements:

1945
Walther Schnurr, Ronald Richter and other scientists from the German arms industry arrive in Argentina. Ronald Richter founds and directs the Bariloche atomic laboratory (this place plays a central role in this article !, H. B), the start of nuclear research in Argentina. Walther Schnurr becomes a scientific advisor to the Argentine government.

1956
Walther Schnurr becomes Scientific Director of the Karlsruhe Atomic Research Center.

1962
Under the leadership of Walther Schnurr, Siemens begins negotiations for the construction of a heavy water reactor in Argentina. At that time there was no heavy water reactor in operation in Germany, although it is a German technique that was developed during World War II.

1963
Siemens begins construction of the MZFR (multi-target research reactor) with 50 megawatts of capacity in Karlsruhe, as a prototype of the larger heavy-water reactor planned for Argentina.

1965
The Foratom Congress of the German Atomic Forum is held in Frankfurt. This congress prepares the international connections of the German nuclear establishment. The first step that later leads to the international offices of the nuclear research centers in Karlsruhe and Jülich.

1969
Foundation of the international offices in the research centers in Jülich and Karlsruhe planned by Walther Schnurr; he becomes the first director of the IB (International Office) in Karlsruhe. The purpose of the IBs is to promote international nuclear power relations and also to enable secret agreements. The nuclear research centers in Karlsruhe and Jülich have already been organized to make secrecy easy and to exclude parliamentary controls. This is why they have the status of GmbHs, and although 90% of the capital and budget comes from the federal government and 10% from the federal states, they are regarded as private companies. The Federal Government uses the two core research centers for secret scientific research and, through the IBS, also for cooperation programs with foreign countries. The contract concluded with Argentina in 1968 for the construction of the Atucha nuclear power plant now has the support and cooperation of the IB of Karlsruhe under the direction of Walter Schnurr.

1979
Argentina announces that Kraftwerk Union (KWU) will build the Atucha 2 nuclear power plant. With this, the KWU won against the Canadian nuclear company.

A little digression: The Nazi from Jülich and the THTR - in Brazil!

What is true of Argentina is true of Brazil in terms of Nazi scientists and atomic bomb ambitions. Both regimes, however, were spider enemies and would have loved to attack each other. The establishment of nuclear power in Brazil and, in particular, the endeavors relating to HTR technology are closely linked to the name of Alfred Böttcher (7), as the above-mentioned brochure "Atomkraft und Faschismus" shows:

Boettcher, Dr. Alfred, born in 1913. Studies: Physics-Nuclear Physics. Before 1945 director of DEGUSSA, which manufactured secret weapons for the Hitler War, including metallic uranium - the fuel elements for the German reactor, moderated with heavy water. OBERSTURMBANNführer SS - Commandant of the SS in Leiden / Holland. In the document of the “Dutch National War Documentation Institute”, Amsterdam, one can read: “Boettcher was an enthusiastic collaborator of the Nazi system.” Sentenced on May 12, 1949 by the Special Court of The Hague. 18 months in prison. General director of Degussa until 1960.

1960
Alfred Boettcher becomes scientific director of the Jülich Atomic Research Center.

1966
Alfred Boettcher is withdrawn from the management of the Jülich Atomic Research Center. The Dutch newspapers discovered his war past as Obersturmbannführer of the SS in Holland, and the Dutch government protested against the presence of this war criminal, who had already been convicted in Holland, in such an important place, just near the Dutch border. Alfred Boettcher was called to other important tasks.

1969
Alfred Boettcher becomes coordinator of the framework agreement on scientific and technological cooperation and specially organizes the specialists for this agreement with Brazil.

1970
Alfred Boettcher organizes summer courses and workshops for nuclear scientists in Brazil. Boettcher also organizes scientific cooperation with South Africa (... by later building a THTR !, HB)

1972
"German-Brazilian special action", named after Alfred Boettcher, in which Brazilian military physicists and economic experts and German specialists and representatives of the economy played through the possibilities of building a Brazilian nuclear economy, as a crucial starting point for the nuclear treaty.

1978
Visit of General Geisel in Bonn. Among other things, the plans for a new nuclear treaty are being worked out. The Brazilian interest is in the Thorium High Temperature Reactor (THTR), of which a prototype of the THTR-300 is under construction in Uentrop near Hamm. These plans are kept top secret. The THTR uses plutonium or highly enriched uranium as fuel. Brazil, of course, does not want to admit that something like this is planned, since it would never have contradicted the promises to enrich it by more than 3% and not to use plutonium. The THTR transforms thorium into uranium 233. Since Brazil has a lot of thorium (in monazite sands, HB), this would be the way to get this new fissile material.
As is well known, all of the grandiose Brazilian-German nuclear plans later got stuck in a multi-billion dollar financial disaster that was widely noticed around the world. If, however, since 2005 Brazil joins an international cooperation for the development of HTR technology again, the historical continuities are obvious.
Horst Blume

also read Part 2 and Part 3 of this article ...

Notes:
1. THTR Circular No. 98, March 2005
2. “Natanz pledge”, Junge Welt, August 17, 8
3. “Urangate”, Göttingen 1988, page 57
4. Ruth Stanley in Fat Booty. German Scientists in Argentina 1945-55 “, Latin America News No. 252/253, 1995, page 35
5. See under 4., page 37
6. “Nuclear power and fascism. Prehistory and background of the German-Brazilian nuclear treaty "Ed .: Citizens' Action Environmental Protection Rhein-Neckar, Ludwigshafen, 1980, 66 pages
7. The activities of Alfred Böttcher were already mentioned in THTR Circular No. 95 pointed out. These references were made by a Dr. Klaus Höthker from Jülich questioned (see THTR-RB No. 110). After this article, all doubts about Böttcher's function during the time of fascism and afterwards should be finally obsolete.

Fascists in the Jülich nuclear research facility (KfJ) after 1945:

August Wilhelm Quick: Member of the Scientific Advisory Board (before 1945: Head of the Institute for Aerodynamite of the German Research Institute for Aviation and Air Mechanics, Head of Construction in the Junkers Air Armaments Group)
Günther Otto Schenk: Member of the scientific advisory board (before 1945: since May 1, 5 NSDAP

Wilhelm Groth: from 1961 - 69 member of the scientific council, honorary member since 1971 (before 1945: employed with "special tasks" at IG Farben, 1937 NSDAP, member of the SA, personnel and press officer of the NS Sudetenbund)

Konrad Beyerle: developed the ultra-centrifuge system for South Africa at KfJ (before 1945: employed developing centrifuge systems for making atomic bombs)

Hans Grosse: Member of the scientific council and head of the Institute for Reactor Components there (before 1945: Freikorps member at the Kapp-Putsch, member of the SA, chief engineer of the Junkers-Werke)

Alfred Boettcher: CEO of KfJ (before 1945: Director of DEGUSSA, charged with developing secret weapons, SS-Hauptsturmführer in Leiden / Holland, sentenced to prison there for war crimes). - (More information in the article above and in the THTR circulars No. 95 and 110; HB)

Franz Bollenrath: involved in the development of the KfJ (before 1945: Head of the Institute for Materials Research of the German Aviation Research Institute)

Rolf Danneel: Member of the scientific council (before 1945: until 1933 member of the Young German Order, since May 1, 5 NSDAP, squad leader in SA-Marinestandarte 1937 in Königsberg)

Robert Haul: Member of the Board of Directors, deputy Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board, employed at the National Chemical Research Laboratory of Pretoria / South Africa from 1949-56 (before 1945: since March 1, 3 NSDAP, head of department at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute, since 33 lecturer in Prague)

Especially with regard to the South African nuclear program and the planned Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), not only the Konrad Beyerle and Robert Haul mentioned above should be mentioned, but also for the "Society for Nuclear Research":

Karl Kaißling: conducted negotiations with South Africa on behalf of the German Atomic Energy Commission (before 1945: NSDAP and SA-Obersturmführer) (p. 15)

Source: “Reaching for the Bomb. The German-Argentine nuclear business ". Editor: Research and Documentation Center Chile - Latin America (FDCL), 1981, pages 14 and 15.

On March 25, 2007, the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, including the EURATOM treaty, was celebrated by officials in the EU. But not everyone cheered, but the left-wing and grass-roots EU parliamentarian Tobias Pflüger invited around 70 opponents of nuclear power plants from Germany to a hearing in the sacred halls of the EU in Brussels. And, of course, a little action at the symbolic Atomium was not to be missed the next day. With this initiative, Tobias Pflüger was the only German EU parliamentarian who supported the protest of the citizens' initiative movement against the EU's nuclear policy, both in terms of content and in practical terms.

Three members of our citizens' initiative also took part. But with an additional ulterior motive. From over 30 years of experience, we know that the environmental protection movement would definitely not say a single word about the European generation IV reactor line, to which the Thorium High Temperature Reactor (THTR) belongs, at this event. And this even though the EU does not miss any opportunity in its public relations work to stir the drum for the high-temperature reactor and spend hundreds of millions of euros on its development.

After the ITER and pressurized water (ERP) project, which has already been decided, dozens (!) Of new constructions of these special reactors are in preparation within the EU for the 20s of this century. The old line of the 2nd and 3rd generation is to be replaced. A completely new strategic direction of nuclear policy is currently being prepared by the EU and the anti-nuclear movement - apart from marginal exceptions - does not even take notice! But that was foreseeable and that's why we took an extra sheet of the THTR circular on this subject with us to Brussels and distributed it.
 
At the hearing in the EU building, which was strictly limited to 2 hours, several interesting lectures were held on Gorleben, the UAA Gronau and the displacement of nuclear waste to Russia. The focus of the lectures was the presentation of the 32-page informative brochure “The EU Constitutional Treaty and the European Union's Atomic Policy”. Unfortunately, it had a serious weak point: The EU's most important future nuclear project was not even mentioned. And ten minutes before the end of the event, as we have already seen often enough in similar cases, Horst Blume then tried in 3 minutes to at least call back what had been missed in the consciousness of those present.
 
In the brochure, Tobias Pflüger refers to the EU's 7th Research Framework Program (2007 to 2011) that is currently under discussion. A doubling of the expenditures for atomic research compared to the last framework program is planned. Of the 2,751 billion euros for EURATOM research, 517 million euros go to the activities of the “Joint Research Center in the Field of Nuclear Technology”. The brochure does not mention that this includes the development of Generation IV reactors.
In her study, the author Ursula Schönberger works out the fundamentals of EU nuclear policy very clearly: “The Euratom Treaty was the only one that was not merged with the EU Constitutional Treaty, but was retained as a separate treaty. It was simply adapted to the new constitutional provisions by means of a protocol in the annex to the constitutional treaty, especially in the institutional and financial area. The European Atomic Energy Community continues to have its own legal personality .... (...)
While it is now standard procedure in all other areas that the European Parliament is placed as an equal legislator alongside the Council and the EU, the European Atomic Energy Community has remained completely unaffected by such democratization tendencies. The European Parliament has no decision-making powers in the overall area of ​​the Euratom Treaty. Most of the legislation in the field of radiation protection is based on Article 31, 2 EAGV. According to this, so-called 'basic standards' are set by the Council on a proposal from the Commission; Parliament only needs to be consulted. The same applies to the various Euratom financial programs. ”EURATOM is therefore a single self-service shop for the nuclear industry and should therefore be abolished!

France, the EU country with by far the largest number of nuclear power plants, decided last year to replace its outdated reactor park with Generation IV reactors in the future. Similar signals can be heard from Great Britain. Nothing of this can be read in the detailed country presentations in the brochure. In view of these far-reaching strategic decisions and the concrete preparations that have already been made, the conclusion of the chapter heading “There is no renaissance yet” is rather naive.

New reactor lines require a lead time of at least 15 to 20 years. The EU decisions to continue HTR funding for the past 10 years (!) Are now being made with the 7th framework plan. The energy companies and the EU have already invested considerable resources of their own and, given the undemocratic EU constitution, we can be sure that the money will ultimately come together for the new nuclear adventure. The EU website is full of hymns of praise for the HTR line and dozens of announcements that the various research programs and international collaborations will be pursued and intensified massively.

Why is - damn it - all of this being ignored? Will the anti-nuclear movement only wake up when dozen of these reactors are built in Europe in 15 years? What has been reported on our homepage for years on every single step that the EU is taking towards the new HTR line, so that everyone can read it? Why is the nuclear reporting of the "grassroots revolution", about a third of which has dealt with Generation IV in the last few years, apparently consistently ignored?

Horst Blume

Here is a list of the most important articles in the THTR circular that deal with the EU and the HTR line:

- EU network for HTR further development (THTR-RB No. 88, 2004)

- EU request for HTR funding (THTR-RB No. 90, 2004)

- The EU will set the course for the HTR line shortly (THTR-RB No. 93, 2004)

- The EU Commission replies to HTR request (THTR-RB No. 94, 2004)

- HTR lobby wants more EU money! (THTR-RB No. 99, 2005)

- France wants to develop Generation IV (THTR-RB No. 105, 2006)

- Sustainably expensive Generation IV (THTR-RB No. 106, 2006)

- Hydrogen research is also nuclear research! (THTR-RB No. 107, 2006)

- Great Britain is turning (THTR-RB No. 108, 2006)

In Dortmund, Lünen, Bonn, Münster, Gronau and Ahaus, the respective city administrations have answered questions about the dangerous uranium hexafluoride (UF-2) rail transports through their city, which take place every 3 to 6 weeks. Sometimes very hard, sometimes superficial - but they answered.

Not so in the city of Hamm. On March 22nd, 3, it brusquely rejected the 2007 questions put by the Hamm citizens' initiative about the transport of radioactive materials from Pierrelatte in France to Gronau in Westphalia, and was the only town to date to refuse to answer them.

The situation in Hamm is particularly explosive: at the marshalling yard in Hamm, trains usually pause for several hours at night. The residents in the Pelkum and Hamm-Mitte districts are particularly at risk. When UF-6 escapes from the tanks, it reacts with the humidity to form highly toxic hydrofluoric acid. This can be absorbed through the respiratory tract and the skin and is fatal even in small amounts.

In contrast to the other cities, the city of Hamm claims that it is not responsible and that the request is not covered by the “communal right of petition according to 24 para. 1 GO”. However, the citizens' initiative is of the opinion that the people in Hamm have the right to find out what is being done for their safety in the event of an accident and how they should then behave.

With the obvious unwillingness to take up a legitimate and urgent public concern at all and to bring it up, those responsible issue a certificate of poverty.
 
Questions as to whether the city administration is informed about upcoming transports and which precautions local authorities may take are subject areas that are directly related to local tasks and cannot be passed on to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia or the federal government.
 
Since the city administration is not willing to inform the citizens of Hamm, the citizens' initiative for environmental protection in Hamm will do so in the next few weeks in connection with the 21st Chernobyl anniversary and distribute a special information sheet for the residents. In addition, she will inform the responsible authorities in the state and at the federal level of the behavior of the administration and ask for the information that the city of Hamm has refused to provide. Because: uranium transports are definitely unsafe!

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