The THTR Circulars from 2003

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THTR Circular No. 84 August 2003

VEW in the 80s:

Nuclear cooperation with South Africa's racist regime!

While in 1987 the citizens' initiatives in the area of ​​Hamm fought with all sorts of actions for its final shutdown after the major incident in the THTR, already at this point in time the VEW had paved the way for the construction of the THTR, which was possible today, thanks to a travel diplomacy to South Africa that was neglected by us. Variant Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) placed - and worked carefree with the white racist regime! The first free elections were held in South Africa in 1994.

The planned with the participation of leading engineers and scientists from Germany Association of Large Power Plant Operators (VGB) a specialist conference on electricity generation and power plants in South Africa. At the opening of the state-owned company ESKOM organized conference in Johannisburg on November 9, 1987 was a lecture of the chairman of the board of the VEW and the deputy VGB chairman Klaus Knizia intended. The subject of atomic energy was not officially on the program.

But, according to TAZ, Knizia "is known not to miss any opportunity to fuel the nuclear power business". dr marnet, Board member of the Düsseldorfer Stadtwerke and the VGB and later AVR managing director in Jülich (!), Should also appear as a speaker as a well-known champion for high-temperature reactor technology.

A visit to the only South African nuclear power plant in Koeberg was part of the "basic program", which was supplemented by ESKOM cocktail parties and "connecting trips" to wildlife sanctuaries or the Nagib desert. The German anti-apartheid groups ran a storm against this obvious cooperation and even the SPD spokeswoman for the Socialist parliamentary group in the European Parliament, Barbara Simonis, declared on September 7, 9: "The desired 'technical and scientific exchange of experience' with South Africa's state energy company is involved a conspiratorial cooperation with the racist regime. "

In contrast, the social democratic supervisory boards at RWE and VEW were extremely uninformed and disinterested. The SPD-led state government also: "'Everyone has to check their commitment in South Africa before their conscience,' says the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which should be aware that the state government could exert more than just philosophical influence through the Westdeutsche Landesbank, which is part of the VEW "(Sep 7, 9). It was only after several weeks of pressure that the SPD and the trade unions allowed themselves to be urged to make a critical statement. The Dortmund SPD under OB Samtlebe, however, not!

Two German speakers, including Dr. Marnet, canceled their trip under pressure from public discussion. But: Opening speaker VEW boss Prof. Knizia remains stubborn. In a nine-page letter to critics from Dortmund, Knizia categorically rejects boycott measures against South Africa and declares that 'you have to attend the conference, especially if you do not approve of the violation of human rights' "(October 13, 10).

VGB managing director Ottmar Schwarz also announced: "We are doing the general population in South Africa a favor by discussing environmentally relevant systems in power plants, safety aspects and training issues." - 

With the same "arguments", the red-green ministries justify their approval for the current export of nuclear know-how to South Africa!

When a VGB conference took place in Dortmund on October 27, 10, including on HTR technology, 1987 demonstrators protested. The TAZ observed the nuclear scene as follows: "The situation on the nuclear power plant market is now difficult, it said. Not only that the energy demand is now lower than expected, but also that in the next ten to 50 years, no electricity generator is likely to have a high temperature -Reaktor (HTR) was the unanimous, if not quite so openly formulated opinion of the speakers at the press conference. That is why the nuclear power plant lobby is increasingly trying to get orders from abroad ..... "- 

In 1987, the THTR sponsors had made new friends in racist South Africa.

We see the result today.

Horst Blume

(All information is from the TAZ editions of July 15, September 7, 18 and 19, October 13 and 28 and November 9, 1987)

Gottfried Wellmer, South Africa specialist and author of the book "Loans to ESKOM - An Example of Collaboration with the Apartheid Regime", dealt more closely with the state-owned company in his summary that was completed in 2002. The sections marked with (X) at the beginning have been published in the official report of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and clearly show how the role of ESKOM is officially seen in South Africa today. We document:

"According to Fine & Rustomjee (1994) Eskom belongs to the mineral and energy complex (MEK). This was and is to this day the heart of the South African economy. It produces higher added value per employee than any other economic sector. In the MEK, capital accumulation took place on a large scale This is where most of South African exports were produced. Eskom's electrical energy and industrial chemical products (Sasol) were mainly geared towards the needs of the mining industry, and their production was based on the raw materials of the mining industry, mainly coal .

(X) As a para-state corporation within the apartheid system, it was the task of Eskom firstly to produce extremely cheap energy for mining and heavy industry, and secondly to help implement the political goals of apartheid. It was in this second sense that Eskom's contribution was made

- Offering stable jobs to unskilled white workers as supervisory staff

- while black workers were mostly recruited as short-term migrant workers; That means: periodic unemployment of blacks was planned from the outset; Ascent. or further training opportunities were just as excluded as any form of social security; they were housed in socially isolated and tightly controlled single-sex barracks; they received extremely low wages which did not take into account the reproduction of the families of the workers in the reservations. It was not until 1987 that Eskom made the effort to recognize the independent and non-racist trade unions NUM (National Union of Mineworkers) and NUMSA (National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa) for the purpose of collective wage and collective bargaining. It was not until 1992 that white and black workers, permanent employees and migrants were allowed into a single integrated forum for collective bargaining.

- Eskom supported the interests of the ruling Boer political class in gaining control over the heights of command of the economy, for example through the conclusion of long-term coal supply contracts with Boer mining companies; or by hiring Boer financial institutions to handle local public bonds and finance transactions for Eskom.

- Eskom supported the Bantustan policy of apartheid by subsidizing industries in the border areas, such as Alusaf in Richards Bay, through particularly cheap energy tariffs.

- Eskom supported the South African government's claims to regional hegemony by taking over the development of energy generation and distribution in occupied Namibia, just as Eskom supported the shaky Portuguese colonial empire by building the dams of Cahora Bassa (Mozambique) and Gove & Calueque ( Angola) as well as the construction of the hydro-electric power plants of Ruacana and Cahora Bassa was co-financed. But when Angola and Mozambique gained their independence, the purported protection of Ruacana was the pretext for the invasion of South African troops into independent Angola; during the Contras the Renamo was allowed to destroy thousands of high voltage pylons between South Africa and Cahora Bassa.

Eskom helped turn the apartheid system into a threat to peace.

- after the Second World War, Eskom was instrumental in promoting South Africa's uranium mining and processing,

- Eskom itself built a nuclear power plant near Koeberg, financially supported the construction of the South African uranium enrichment plant and the construction of the South African nuclear weapons; With the help of Switzerland and France, Eskom even managed to get 100 t of LEU without having to sign the NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty).

- (X) Because of its strategic importance for the apartheid state, Eskom was declared a "national key point" in 1980; That means: all leading employees and managers of Eskom had to submit to a security check by the secret services and had to maintain constant contact with the security police and the army in order to secure the Eskom facilities against sabotage attacks. To this end, Eskom had to set up its own militia and a company counter-espionage ring. Before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Eskom was charged with passing weapons from his warehouse to the Inkatha, directly fueling the civil war. Eskom denied that.

- Despite Nkomati's non-aggression treaty with Mozambique in 1984, Eskom built a deadly electric fence 1986 km along the border between the two countries on behalf of the state in 63. In the first four years of its existence, the 3000 volt fence killed 94 people; mostly civilians who tried to escape the South African backed war in Mozambique. "

"(...) In the program 'Westblick' (WDR 5) on December 23.12.2002, 2000, we heard that the chairman of the Jülich research center, Professor Joachim Treusch, wanted to pass on nuclear power know-how for the THTR variant Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) was in South Africa for the first time in October XNUMX and stated: 'And this first trip, during which the first contracts were signed, took place expressly in consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassy was involved . So everything went quite legally. ' We have the following questions:

1. Since when, with what content and with which participants, efforts have been made in cooperation with the Federal Foreign Office and its affiliated working groups (e.g. Atomic Issues Group, Non-Proliferation Working Group) to make know.how on high-temperature reactor technology available to the energy company ESKOM in South Africa ?

2. How did the cooperation between your office, the South African embassy and German representatives from industry and research come about and what did it look like?

3. How do you rate the experiences made in Germany with high-temperature reactor technology?

4. How important are the assessments of the former and current chairmen of the German Reactor Safety Commission Lothar Hahn and Michael Sailer, who both expressed themselves very critically about high-temperature reactor technology?

5. Do your activities contradict the declared goal of the federal government to phase out nuclear power?

6. How do you rate ESKOM's seriousness and efforts to respect human rights as well as environmentally friendly and sustainable energy generation in South Africa?

7. Did considerations about the possibility of a proliferation risk play a role in your activities, since the planned PBMR in South Africa is to be built specifically for export and, for example, the manufacture of a so-called dirty bomb could be possible in other countries?

8. Is there still a transfer of knowledge on nuclear issues to South Africa currently taking place and is one planned for the future?

9. Do you support efforts in your ministry to ensure that environmentally friendly energies are given greater consideration in South Africa in the future? "

See also, in 'Newsletter no .: 88', the total of 2 inquiries with the response from the Ministry of 10.01.2004, which has since arrived.

I have translated the current article from the "Nuclear Monitor" No. 590 from 11.07.2003/XNUMX/XNUMX as follows:

On June 25th, the South African Ministry of Environment and Tourism (DEAT) approved the environmental review of the planned PBMR. This is not the last but an important step in building a PBMR prototype in Koeberg near Cape Town.

South African non-governmental organizations want to appeal this decision and are preparing an appeal to the court later this year to prevent construction.

In May, Earthlife Africa went to the court to obtain an injunction from the judge against these proceedings. Earthlife believes that the South African constitution gives the right to be heard by the government before making a decision.

The court dismissed an emergency ruling on June 3 and Eartzlife had to go through the normal legal process. The court date with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism was set for September 9th.

On June 26th, DEAT issued a press release endorsing the environmental review and

thereby removed the first hurdle for the 110 MW PBMR. The permit contains a list of conditions including waste disposal, the decommissioning concept and the long-term treatment of highly contaminated waste and the spent fuel elements that must be met before construction can begin. In our opinion, these conditions are meaningless. (...)

DEAT's press release does not mean that the ministry itself oversees waste regulations or environmental protection laws. Rather, it leaves these areas to the ministry of minerals and energy (waste) or the national energy authority (safety).

The present approval is valid for five years. If construction does not start within five years, the permit is invalid.

In Earthlife's opinion, the public has so far only been involved at a low level.

Interested citizens and groups have 30 days to appeal to the ministry to appeal the decision. The final date for the appeal is July 25th. "

"Nuclear Monitor" quotes in a separate article the atomic paper "NuclearFuel" from July 3, 2003, which explains the further planned procedural path:

(...) "The Ministry of Minerals and Energy must have completed a national nuclear waste disposal concept beforehand, which must be approved before the construction of the PBMR can begin. The national atomic energy authority still has to issue a nuclear license and the project from a safety point of view ESKOM expects the requested safety report in the first quarter of 2004. The national atomic energy authority assumes it will take almost a year to review the report.

Initial construction work on the site could begin in the first quarter of 2005 and the reactor could accommodate nuclear fuel two to three years before commissioning. "

"With the end of apartheid in South Africa, the media interest in the country largely ended. The report of the truth commission is available, the human rights violations during the apartheid regime have been exposed, the perpetrators and victims are known. While the majority of the perpetrators have been amnestied, the victims are waiting still on compensation.

The total of the reparations and compensation payments is around one billion marks. Money that is not available as South Africa is heavily indebted. The credits from the apartheid regime eat up a fifth of the national budget. German companies and banks made huge profits in South Africa. Nobody wants to know anything about that today. The cancellation of the bloody loans demanded by the victims of apartheid is out of the question. Western companies and banks think even less of adequate reparation payments for the misery they have caused. So everything stays the same. The profiteers of yore are now again happily involved in profitable arms deals. At the end of 1999 President Mbeki concluded an armaments deal with Western European companies worth a total of 14 billion marks. Money that would be sorely needed for the fight against poverty and the elimination of the social problems at the Cape. "(From AK No. 448)

When Foreign Minister Fischer visited South Africa in 2000, not only were the current contracts for the export of nuclear know-how from Jülich to South Africa wrapped up under his direction (see the catalog of questions on page four), but also the previous arms deals also found their "green" continuation. And the "Black Empowerment" (see RB No. 83), which Education Minister Bulmahn praised as exemplary (see RB No. XNUMX), means in this case that German arms exporters were required to work with companies run by blacks as much as possible. What a step forward !!

Horst Blume

Our website is used extensively and published in various newspapers. A number of letters and documents have since been added. We are still urgently looking for translators into and from English! In addition: We asked the Böll Foundation NRW and the NRW Ministry of the Environment that the planned tour of South African energy experts also stop in Hamm and that we can present our opinion on the THTR. We have also emailed the Böll Foundation office in South Africa. Maybe it will be active in this matter ...

NRW pays 3,034 million euros annually for the THTR

In the NRW budget under section 20 (commitment authorizations) clauses 2020 - 69700 can be read: "Subsidies in connection with the orderly closure of the THTR 300 in Hamm-Uentrop". Starting in 2002, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia has to pay a total of 23,272 million euros for eight years. That means 2009 million euros every year until 3,034.

In Gronau, North Rhine-Westphalia, there is no sign of this. Germany's only uranium enrichment plant is building on expansion: instead of 1.680 tons, the operator Urenco wants up to 7.680 tons of natural uranium to be enriched there annually so that it is suitable for nuclear power plants - enough fuel for around 35 large ones Reactors.

7.500 objections to the expansion have been received by the Ministry of Economics in Düsseldorf. "This was even written by the now government-affiliated TAZ on July 8, 7. To make it really difficult for environmentalists, the red-green state government put the hearing in the middle of the summer and the venue as a whole 2003 km from Gronau to Legden. The opponents of course received no notification for this date. On July 30, the TAZ-Ruhr wrote: "Opponents of nuclear power plants complain about a 'chaotic negotiation' at the hearing" and harassment at the entrance. "Anyone in Germany from the If you want to get out of nuclear power, you should not secure the expansion and continued operation of nuclear power plants in other countries, argued Robin Wood.

The "Federal Association of Christian Democrats Against Nuclear Power" (CDAK), which claims to have almost 800 members, criticized the inadequate insurance cover and the inadequate security of the plant against attacks from the air. The "Federal Association of Greens against Nuclear Power" (GgA i. G.), which has only nine (!) Members, protested vigorously ....

In January and February of this year, 25 recipients of the THTR circular donated to receive this sheet. Right now, when the debate about the planned THTR variant PBMR is just getting started in South Africa and Germany, a medium is important that compiles information and also helps to organize the resistance. I also wrote this to 35 recipients, almost all of whom had something to do with the environmental protection movement in Hamm in one way or another in the 70s and 80s, and only one person made a donation! A shameful result! There are certainly many other important political issues and I have some understanding that some may want to enjoy the last third of their lives to the full. But honestly, I did not expect such a complete disinterest, although I know exactly that when there is a personal threat in the immediate vicinity, the excitement is always very great and even when it comes to Ahaus, the commitment decreased very much. The only question is: who should do something against the planned PBMR construction, if not us?

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