The THTR Circulars from 2008

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THTR Circular No. 121, May 2008

KiKKeriki: Wake up, Minister !!

Five months after the publication of the KiKK study, it can already be determined: The four letters THTR, which are so familiar at this point, but otherwise only painstakingly pronounced by many people, are present again. In the public of this region and in the consciousness of the people who live here.

22 years after the accident in the bankruptcy reactor, people look to the right and left and are shocked to discover who was and is suffering from cancer and leukemia. The cause is certainly not always in the THTR, but one would like to know more details. A scientifically sound study by independent experts would be just the thing. But, according to Federal Environment Minister Gabriel, there shouldn't be. Hence the excitement and the countless media reports. Even before the negative answer from the minister reached the citizens' initiative, Welver decided on March 12, 2008, as the third municipality after Lippborg and Hamm, to join the call for a cancer study.
Gabriel wrote: "It is not intended to expand the KiKK study to include further individual locations." He did not even respond to the request to have a separate study carried out for the THTR region if necessary. Minister Gabriel's letter continued to contain only information that had been known for three months and that was extremely inadequate. The unhelpful suggestion to obtain information from the German Cancer Registry does not help. This cancer registry is currently only trying to process the data from July 1, 2005, while the cancer cases under discussion at the THTR are already relevant from the major accident year 1986!

All this scant information, which Gabriel is now repeating like a prayer wheel, has been known for months. He serves you up again to distract from his only powerful but embarrassing sentence: There should be no cancer study at the THTR! Obviously, there is great resistance within the federal government to its own cancer study on the breakdown reactor THTR.

On the one hand, there is obviously a fear that a similar scandal will become apparent as in the Elbmarsch, where, after an incident with exactly the same radioactive PAC globules used in the THTR, the world's highest leukemia rate in children is to be reported. The THTR is taboo for scientific research for a second reason: it is the prototype for the reactors of the generation IV, into which the largest share of nuclear research funds worldwide is to be invested over the next two decades. However, an above-average number of cancer deaths in the vicinity of the prototype of the “reactor line of the future” is not doing so well.

To build up more pressure, we started one on April 8th Signature campaignto give broad sections of the population the opportunity to express their concerns and to underline their demand for a cancer study. Not only individuals can take part, but also clubs and groups. Although we know that in the immediate vicinity of the reactor some people might prefer to suppress dangers and cancer cases, we distributed signature lists and leaflets for the Chernobyl rally almost everywhere in Vellinghausen and Lippborg. Amazingly, some concerned citizens contacted us again. In Lippborg, self-organized signatures are even collected in the grocery store and the lists are passed on among each other. Together with the umbrella association of critical shareholders, we carried our demands on April 17th at the RWE shareholders' meeting in Essen. RWE should finally take responsibility for its unsuccessful nuclear policy and co-finance an independent cancer study and pay the 5,6 million euros for the maintenance of the THTR itself and no longer burden the taxpayers with the costs. As expected, these applications were rejected. However, this campaign also proved to be very effective in the media. Dozens of reports and television and radio reports were the result.

Shortly before the rally to mark the Chernobyl anniversary, we press “exiles” again on the tube with the help of a hammer. In order to give younger citizens, who did not experience the THTR accidents in 1986, which received a lot of attention nationwide, an impression of the dramatic situation at the time, we have put the official Tagesschau news about this event on the much-visited film portal "You Tube" and linked to our homepage. The Internet community gratefully accepted this vivid memory refresh and avidly linked it.

Approximately 120 participants demonstrated on April 26 at the rally in front of the decommissioned THTR in Hamm-Uentrop for an immediate nuclear phase-out and called for a cancer study in the area around the THTR. A tractor with a trailer brought back vivid memories of the much-noticed access blockades at the time of the incidents in the THTR 22 years ago. With this well-attended rally, the Hamm Citizens' Initiative Environmental Protection, which has been active for 33 years, showed that it is still good for surprises. BI's staying power is still necessary.

The chairman of the Ahaus citizens' initiative, Heiner Möllers, also spoke at the rally and reported on the situation in Hamm's “nuclear twin town”, where the THTR's fuel element balls have been temporarily stored in a hall for 13 years.

Matthias Eickhoff from the action alliance Münsterland against nuclear facilities emphasized that even 22 years after Chernobyl, the nuclear industry and its compliant parties have learned nothing from the reactor disaster. They still preach nuclear power as a miracle cure for the future. They can't even cope with the ruins of the former child prodigies. It continues to be massively suppressed, covered up and concealed in order not to disturb the positive ideal of atomic energy.

Horst Blume from BI Hamm reported on the missing cancer study and the possible THTR demolition. A week later, at the well-attended spring conference of the anti-nuclear movement in Ahaus, with its own “location report”, these topics received national attention.

All in all, two eventful months are behind us, in which the THTR was more in focus than the last two decades

First build a completely new type of reactor, then move from incident to incident and then, 19 years after its decommissioning, pursue the question of what could happen to the highly radioactive nuclear fuel in the next decades and centuries. For example when it gets damp (like in Ahaus), the surrounding material is tired or an additional acid is too corrosive. - Who does something like that??

The whole mess has a name: THTR. And those responsible are called RWE and HKG. But now they have instructed their accomplices at the University and Research Center Jülich to investigate how long the fuel element balls last. Please, please don't break them so quickly! This is best examined by a trainee in a study or diploma thesis in the pleasant care of Dr. Karl Verfondern (1) in Jülich. On February 5th, 2008 we read the following advertisement on the homepage of the FZJ:

"Development and validation of a computer model to describe the behavior of HTR fuel particles under final storage conditions."

That is explained in more detail. A taste:

“In the case of final storage of spent HTR fuel elements, it is necessary to know to what extent the coated fuel particles are or remain able to maintain their containment function for the radioactive fission products even over long periods of time. The assumption is made that if the external barriers fail, the coated fuel particles come into contact with corrosive aquatic media. The aim of the investigation is the development and application of a computer model with which the behavior of coated particles can be simulated under long-term storage conditions. The typical effects of a repository are to be examined, such as corrosion of the various particle layers in corrosive solutions relevant to repositories, material fatigue over long periods of time ... ".

You think of that early! And the poor student also has to solve a few other little problems: “The PANAMA version (a calculation code) modified for repository conditions should then be applied to the spent spherical fuel elements with TRISO particles in Germany. It should also be used to develop suitable strategies for future HTR fuel concepts ... "

Yes, yes, the future is really very important to the gentlemen; especially that of new high-temperature reactors. Innovative and always on the cutting edge: “Do you have your own idea for a job? Let us know! ”- They obviously want to do a lot more. The following theses are specifically planned within the “Innovative Reactors” working group:

- Verification of various codes for simulating pressure relief accidents at the HTR
- Development of non-return valves to control pressure relief accidents at the HTR
- Comparison of prestressed and normally reinforced inner concrete cells in the HTR
- Design of a textile intermediate storage facility for surge gases from a high-temperature reactor

After a phase of irritated despondency, Forschungszentrum Jülich is again confidently putting its "historical mission" in the foreground, to be at the forefront in the future at the international level in the further development of Generation IV:

"In fact, the IEF-6 (2) is one of the few research institutes in the world that is involved in real construction projects for innovative reactors (e.g. China, South Africa)." - And that in an "exit country" !! Via the small detour Euratom, the International Atomic Energy Agency or direct funding from the nuclear industry, this is no longer a real problem.
However, at this point in time, it is not entirely by chance that we are dealing with the conditions for the final storage of THTR fuel elements. Behind the scenes, politics and the nuclear industry are busy calculating the cheapest way to dispose of the nuclear waste THTR. An earlier demolition than originally planned cannot be ruled out.

Let's take a closer look at the coordinates of the calculation example:
The 5,6 million euros that accrue annually have to be borne almost entirely by the federal government and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The motion by BI Hamm and the critical shareholders at the RWE shareholders' meeting on April 17, 2008 that RWE should pay the decommissioning costs itself in the future was, as is well known, rejected as expected. Paying € 5,6 million a year for thirty or forty years adds up.

A dismantling of the THTR up to "Green meadow" was last estimated in 1994 by an engineering company in a study at 305 million euros total costs. In its answer of April 9, 2008 to a request from the NRW Greens, the NRW state government said: “This study is currently being updated and is expected to take place at the next meeting of the residual processing working group May of the current year present ".

After the decommissioning license issued in 1997, it must have been decided in nine years (2017) at the latest what should happen to the reactor ruin in the future. A quick demolition will also endanger the population, as the radioactivity has not yet died down sufficiently and the dismantling of the reactor would lead to radioactive releases and innumerable transports of nuclear waste. Even more people would be endangered by additional transport routes. A safe repository is also not yet in sight

There are still in the reactor 1,6 kilograms of nuclear fuel (3). That means plutonium and uranium. And not only in the reactor core, but also in the pipe system for the fuel element balls. Because contrary to our demands for the shutdown no nuclide atlas one does not know exactly where all the highly radioactive sites are. That makes demolition even more difficult and dangerous.

It is already clear: The whole mess has to be washed out by the local population and not by RWE. It is now only a matter of enforcing the least bad option for the people of the region.

Notes:
1. In the period from 2003 to 2007, author published at least nine publications on the THTR as part of his work in the FZJ. Also in South Korea and Japan, where research is also being carried out on this reactor line.
2. IEF-6: Institute for Energy Research and Reactor Technology at Forschungszentrum Jülich
3nd WA of May 24, 6

Helmuth Bolle is dead

Helmuth Bolle has campaigned against nuclear power plants as early as 1975 as a member of the Nonviolent Action (GA) Arnsberg / Neheim-Hüsten and participated in the founding of citizens' initiatives against the THTR. The GA provided important impulses for the substantive work of the initiatives. Helmuth later became a member of the Greens and a member of the Hochsauerlandkreis. He opened a health food store back in the 70s and has remained true to his ideals to this day. He died after a brief, serious illness at the age of only 58. Especially the BI'ler of the first hour will remember him.

The more signatures, the more pressure is generated. The greater the chance of success! Until July 1st. - Help us!

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