The THTR Circulars from 2007

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THTR Circular No. 116, Sept. 2007

Generation IV - reactors: advancement instead of exit

How to "get out" of nuclear power purely verbally and in a dismayed manner and at the same time offer the leading representatives of the German nuclear industry a much-noticed forum on the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl reactor disaster, so that they can boldly trumpet their bold expansion plans - all of this can be read in the conference reader “Energy Policy 20 Years After Chernobyl”, published belatedly by Federal Environment Minister Gabriel.

Knowing full well that she will be on the longer lever in the face of a fickle federal government, dictates Walter Hohlefelder, President of the German Atomic Forum and member of the board of E.ON, the clerk of the duped Federal Environment Minister Gabriel in the record book: We are not interested in your vague chatter about the exit, we ultimately set the course for energy policy. Together with our multinational cooperation partners, we are building the new Generation IV of nuclear reactors, especially the old German high-temperature reactor. This memorable "dialogue" in the shadow of the deadly Chernobyl nuclear disaster deserves to be reproduced in excerpts:

gabriel: “The basic risks of nuclear energy cannot be controlled. Not even in Germany. "

Hollow fields: "Those who want to keep the nuclear power option open are not the ones who are yesterday, but those who don't even want to think about the future of nuclear power in this country."

gabriel: "There are enough alternatives."

Hollow fields: "With a view to large-scale hydrogen production - one of the great future visions of energy supply - we have a realistic approach to innovation that other technologies cannot offer."

gabriel: “The second alternative is renewable energies. Germany is proud of its engineering and research policy potential. "

Hollow fields: “The use of the helium-cooled high-temperature reactor appears to be possible in the relatively short term. When used to generate electricity, an efficiency of over 50 percent can be achieved. The PBMR is being made ready for use today. As is well known, this type of reactor is based on a German development (AVR, HTR), which was canceled in this country due to the lack of future for nuclear energy. We will probably have to import such systems from abroad in the future. "

gabriel: "Germany has the chance to show the world, and especially the less developed countries, that there is a future without nuclear power."

Hollow fields: “The nuclear research institutions worldwide and the research and development departments of the power plant manufacturers are now working intensively on the fourth generation of nuclear power plants. It could be commercially viable by 2025. The initiative to research and develop this so-called 'Generation IV' was launched five years ago by ten countries (Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, Switzerland, Great Britain and the United States). Unfortunately, Germany is not included. In this respect, Germany threatens to lose touch with global developments and thus its say in future international security standards. "

gabriel: "Now it is important not to have permanent doubts about this exit agreement, but to implement it and secure the future of our energy supply without nuclear energy."

Hollow fields: “Without wanting to offend anyone, I think the formula of the irreversibility of the exit is foolish. It is presumptuous when our generation wants to dictate to future generations how they should meet their energy needs. I am also sure that future generations will not let us dictate this. "

The German nuclear industry is autonomous ...
... and the federal government can talk about the exit until it goes black. Place of action: The Philippsburg nuclear power plant, information center. These are the days from March 9th to 11th, 2005. As a precaution, the events there will only be announced to the public about a year later after the change of government: There will be a so-called “HGF doctoral seminar” on the subject of “Nuclear Safety Research” followed by Awarding of the EnBW seminar prize for the best lecture. In plain language: Here the nuclear industry draws compliant nuclear scientists and the Helmholz Association, as a superordinate nationwide research institution, willingly participates in this deliberate sabotage of the “exit”. But let's let the very eager "security researchers" have their say:

“In 28 lectures, the junior nuclear technicians reported on their work, which covered a wide range of topics including reactor safety, partitioning and transmutation, innovative reactor systems and safety research on final disposal. (...)
Together with the RWTH Aachen University, the Universities of Heidelberg, Karlsruhe, Münster and Stuttgart and the Research Center Jülich, these virtual institutes were able to finance and fill 8 doctoral and 2 junior researcher positions.
In addition to the nuclear technology doctoral students from the above-mentioned institutions, the seminar also included junior staff from the Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU) and seven doctoral students who are funded by industry (Framatome ANP, RWE Power and EnBW) and at the research center through the sponsorship concept of the nuclear technology competence network Karlsruhe experienced their training. The EnBW seminar prize for the best lecture was given by Dr. Hans-Josef Zimmer, CEO of EnBW Kraftwerksgesellschaft, awarded to Ms. Ayelet Walter from the University of Stuttgart for her work on system modeling HTR (!!) with helium gas turbine under operating and accident conditions. "

Lots of lectures on the further development of the HTR
Nine of the total of 28 lectures dealt with the further development of Generation IV reactors, although this line was supposedly no longer developed in the FRG and therefore resulted in general whining among nuclear fetishists. The list of lectures and development work financed by the nuclear companies by the “exit” speaks a different language:

- Investigation of the cladding tube temperatures of an HPLWR fuel element in sliding pressure operation. Behnke (RWE Power AG)
- Heat transfer comparisons for a pipe flow of water in the supercritical state. Löwenberg (RWE Power AG)
- Coupled MCNP and Sub-Channel code for analyzes of a HPLWR fuel assembly. Waata (FZK / IKET)
- Impact of basic cross-sections and thermal cattering law data on Neutronics parameters of HPLWR's. Conti (IKE Stuttgart)
- Coupling of numerical models for neutronic and thermal hydraulics to simulate transients in the HTR. Rademer (IKE Stuttgart)
- Thermal fluid dynamic models and analyzes for the HTR. Nader (IKE Stuttgart)
- Development of web-based tools for the simulation of HTR systems. Schulz (IKE Stuttgart)
- System modeling and simulation of HTR circuits. Walter (IKE Stuttgart)
- Nuclear hydrogen generation and storage methods. Ossowski (IKE Stuttgart)

And many thanks to the Karlsruhe Research Center for their selfless support! Until next year!

How is our reactor doing? - No end in sight yet
But no matter how nice the prices and small gifts from the nuclear industry, they cannot hide the fact that, despite all the scientific and technical progress, there are also hard fates that we do not want to forget. Project leader Dr. G. Dietrich, responsible for the orderly handling of the remainder of the THTR 300 project, is possibly one of those cases where the rest is given in the truest sense of the word: Twice a year he has to submit the semi-annual report on the current status of the decommissioning operation:
 
2002: "The safely enclosed system THTR 300 still consists of the buildings reactor hall, reactor operating building, reactor auxiliary building with the plant components contained therein as well as the signaling desk, set up at the main gatekeeper of the neighboring power plant in Westphalia ..."
2003: "The safely enclosed system THTR 300 ...."

.... - enough of the cruel game.

It should be understandable that the constant repetition of this monotonous procedure could lead to depression in the person performing it. This could also be reinforced by the fact that the beautiful reactor is never brought back to life and is constantly being dismantled.
 
This is why smaller highlights are also very important from a psychological point of view, such as the following from 2002: "In the year under review, the turbine set removed from the machine house and the generator in a lignite-fired power plant in Turkey were installed by the manufacturer and successfully put into operation." Yes, who said it, at least this small part of the THTR obviously worked - or has anyone heard of a GAU in a Turkish coal-fired power plant? Perhaps with these small gifts the Turks can be made receptive and in the end would like to have a whole HTR themselves and not just a small piece of it?

Degradation of the biological shield
Smaller gifts were also given in 2005: “Various small components (including measuring transducers, needle valves, solenoid valves, small lines) were removed from the monitoring area and made available to a university for scientific purposes (HB: Why not a technology museum?). Furthermore, a prestressed cast pressure vessel with a total weight of approx. 200 Mg was dismantled and recycled. This container had already been released from the scope of the Atomic Energy Act during the establishment of the safe enclosure and could therefore be dismantled without involving the nuclear regulatory authority. "(Cleverly done, respect!)

Various refrigeration systems, fittings, pumps, motors and measuring transducers have also changed hands over the past few years. We are still interested in the expansion of the reactor tank and the dismantling of the biological shield prepared in 2006 as part of the 9th decommissioning license. A TÜV report on a revised safety report was still expected in this context. Fortunately, our project manager now has a little more to do and does not have to hire a dog-handling security guard for 7,11 euros per hour (gross!) With the new, inexpensive THTR security service. Lucky!

In addition, project manager Dietrich makes every possible effort to make himself useful. It was only in June 2007 that he published an article in the monthly atw - the specialist journal that as early as 1983 attributed good safety properties to the Chernobyl reactor. Can there be a more suitable publication location for a realistic THTR article? Already from the title of the article (bypass control ...) you can clearly see that our reactor is not doing too well:

"Stationary part-load behavior of a closed single-shaft gas turbine system with a high-temperature reactor with a bypass control from the high-pressure compressor outlet to the cooling inlet."

Here extremely important questions are dealt with about a reactor line that will never be built again in Germany - if you can believe the official assurances of our environment minister. So all in all, this post is a real asset to a realistic debate!

Horst Blume

"TR: Fourth generation nuclear power plants, called high temperature or pebble bed reactors, are said to be inherently safe. Does this inherent security exist?
Sailer: There is no such thing as absolute inherent security. You can draw an inherently safe reactor on paper, but if you want to build a workable reactor there are always scenarios where it doesn't. In the case of the HTR, for example, water ingress from the secondary side. If the HTR is small enough, the inherent properties are much better than our current systems. That is why the dream of HTR proponents is to build many such small modules next to each other. But then they have an economic problem: small modules are more expensive per megawatt of installed power than large ones.
This is actually not an option because there are no fully developed modules. In principle, it is only being worked on in China and South Africa. In China, where I recently looked at a system like this, I couldn't find anything that would indicate an imminent series production. In South Africa, the technology is still controversial and has not yet been implemented. And then the question still arises: implementation at what level of security? When the modules cost so much, there is a temptation to save somewhere, for example on security. "

As always at the beginning of a promising cooperation, the new business partners shower each other with compliments and superlatives. For the US software company Meridium, the planned South African Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) is "the first commercial, highly developed reactor to be built in the new millennium" - with their help. If it was a flop, it would be a millennium flop after all. In any case, a well-paid honor to be able to participate here.

Obviously, Meridium has not fully noticed the slight delays in the schedule for the reactor construction, if you read their press release. But if this company tries as intended to optimize the "support strategies" for the stubborn reactor, it will still notice that the expected "increase in performance potential" has reached certain limits. The poorest are already to be pitied.
 
You could even have found out about the long bankruptcy history of the HTR project in Germany on site. Because the US company not only has branches in Dubai and Australia, but also in Walldorf, Germany. Meridium Inc. will sell its "software and consulting solutions in the asset performance management (APM) area" to the PBMR company for good money, as it announced in its press release on August 22, 2007.

It seems important to the South Africans that with this cooperation they "achieve better profitability and predictable production capacity without additional capital investment". They obviously need that very much. But it won't help much, and the bill for this irresponsible nuclear adventure will be left to the bottom of the people.

We can well imagine that you don't have much time to answer our questions. The many new working groups in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the supervisory board meetings at Forschungszentrum Jülich, in which you sound out “in what form nuclear research skills” could be used recently, will certainly take your full attention.
However, you yourself announced in the TAZ-NRW on August 3, 2006 that a decision should be brought about as soon as possible (see THTR circular no. 109). Now, 13 months ago, on August 6, 2006 to be precise, we sent you our related questions and have not yet received any answers. We are of course very happy that you are checking so thoroughly and conscientiously, but we would like an answer in the foreseeable future. We also offer that we can visit you in your office in order to create clarity in a personal conversation.

Sincerely!
Horst Blume for BI Environmental Protection Hamm

The city of Hamm has again refused to answer our second list of questions about the UF-6 transports through Hamm, although they addressed new, catastrophic grievances (see THTR-RB No. 115) and this time it was suggested that the deployment concept of the Hammer fire department update. - Don't say a word too much, don't even take a single step towards the citizen, even in the case of great danger, always put everything off in a formal and bureaucratic manner. Did anyone expect anything else from them? The green parliamentary group will also be so friendly this time and once again submit our suggestions to the responsible bodies.
 
In Berlin, 220 vandalistic hydrofluoric acid attacks took place on the railway and public buildings last year, reported the Tagesspiegel on August 8, 8. So far this year there have been 2007. There is a “street art scene” in Berlin which uses the hydrofluoric acid produced from uranium hexafluoride to immortalize its characters and names in panes of glass. Contact with this acid not only causes chemical burns on the skin. Rather, the acid penetrates deeper into human tissue and damages bones, among other things. The threatening thing is the interference with the body's metabolism, 'says Roland Stiegler, a graduate chemist from the Chemicals Employers' Liability Insurance Association. It is absorbed through the mucous membranes. Fluorine ions reacted with the body's own magnesium and calcium. As a result of these changes, there is a risk that liver and kidney damage will occur which, in the worst case scenario, can be fatal ”(Tagesspiegel August 51, 8).
 
Mind you, we are talking about a few grams of this substance. According to Urenco, 130 wagons with a total of 380 containers are transported from Pierrelatte to Gronau every year. A single container holds 12,5 tons of uranium hexafluoride. And several of them stood around unguarded in Hamm for hours. That is a completely different, terrifying dimension!

How dangerous hydrofluoric acid is judged by the judiciary becomes clear when a young first-time offender is caught in Berlin. For his irresponsible handling of a few grams he received two years' imprisonment without parole (Taz of August 17, 8). The origin of the ultra-toxic substance is still in the dark. Strangely enough, no one has ever thought that a Urenco employee might have diverted something.

The FDP was 60 years old in North Rhine-Westphalia. Reason enough for the active innovation minister not only to gloss over the HTR bankruptcy reactor story, but also that of his own party. At his celebratory speech on August 19, 2007 in Düsseldorf, Genscher, Scheel and Lambsdorf were celebrated with a lot of ringing. Pinkwart only mentioned the criminal Hasadeur Möllemann, who was chairman of North Rhine-Westphalia for 17 years, and this is where the confusion of history begins.

The FDP has been a party for anti-Semites in North Rhine-Westphalia since it was founded, wrote the weekly newspaper “Jungle World” on May 22, 5: “In the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany, it acted as a collecting tank for former National Socialists. (...) In particular, the liberals turned against denazification; they saw themselves as advocates of the "small party comrades" and former soldiers. (...) At its Federal Party Congress in Munich in September 2002, the FDP demanded the release of all "so-called war criminals" and welcomed the establishment of the Association of German Soldiers, which consisted of former Wehrmacht and SS members, shortly before. (...) But not only members of the Socialist Reich Party (SRP), which was banned by the Federal Constitutional Court as a successor to the NS in 1951, were courted by the FDP. "

On August 20, 8, the TAZ also pointed out that in the 2007s the FDP could definitely not be described as a cosmopolitan and tolerant party: “In fact, the full-time apparatus of the NRW-FDP was interspersed with former NSDAP, HJ - and SS functionaries. The state association, which is positioned to the extreme right - at least with the toleration of NRW boss Middelhauves - could become the starting point for the takeover activities of the "Naumann Circle", a group around Werner Naumann, the last State Secretary of Joseph Goebbels. In early 50 the district was dug up by the British. Major door openers for the right-wing extremists remained unmolested and were able to continue their careers in the FDP. Until the 1953s, the regional association remained strictly German-national ”.

The former National Socialist and former Bundestag parliamentary group leader Erich Mende also came from North Rhine-Westphalia and only went to the opposition CDU in 1970 to protest against the policy of détente. So we see that Pinkwart has a great talent for turning a disaster into an intoxicating success story. He could be trusted to offer the unspeakably proud FDP mayor Deuse from Mügeln in North Rhine-Westphalia “asylum”.

The Wikipedia the link to our critical homepage was repeatedly deleted by the atomic lobby in the THTR article. Reason enough to take a closer look at the people behind these machinations next time. Or the fact that a hammer high school copies one-sided of operator brochures on its homepage and thus turns itself into the much-used propaganda arm of the nuclear industry.
 
The homepage www.antiatombonn.de Thankfully also reflects content from the THTR circular. In the meantime, the person responsible for the website is being investigated for allegedly calling for crimes in connection with the G8 protests in June. The police ransacked his home and confiscated his computer three months after the release. This is intended to intimidate and represents a blatant attack on our fundamental rights. We show solidarity with our friends in Bonn and stay on the ball.

The preparations for the Uranium conference on September 22nd in Dortmund have come a long way. Nobody should miss this highly informative event! Info: www.sofa-ms.de

The obituary for the deceased THTR plaintiff Hartmut Peek-Kruse in the Westfälischer Anzeiger was adorned with a false personal photo, for which we as BI cannot do anything, even if the text was quoted from the circular. How embarassing.

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