The THTR Circulars from 2004

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THTR Circular No. 95 Dec. 2004

FZ Jülich is always there!

The atomic triangle: Germany, South Africa and Pakistan

"Right from the start, the Federal Republic of Germany put up the most energetic resistance to the intensive inspection measures that Washington in particular wanted to enforce."

wrote Robert Jungk in 1977 in his book "Der Atomstaat" about the attitude of the Federal Republic to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty that was aimed for from 1965 onwards.

No, I am not going to start talking long-windedly about those scientists who were already leading research on atomic energy at the time of fascism, in order to continue in the 50s and 60s under the atomic minister Franz Josef Strauss. I will not go into more detail on the SS-Obersturmbannführer who was finally convicted in Leiden (Holland) Alfred Boettcher received, the 1960 to 1966 director of the Nuclear Research Center Jülich and was responsible for the connections to South Africa and Brazil. Not even on the NSDAP leader Wilhelm Grothwho researched the atomic bomb under the Nazis before 1945 in order to continue in Jülich after the war.

And in the end I will only briefly at Eric Bagge and Eric Diebner pause, who also carried out nuclear weapons research for the Third Reich, around 1954 Geesthacht Atomic Research Center and continued research on the German atomic and hydrogen bomb. The civil-military research of this "Society for the Utilization of Nuclear Energy in Shipbuilding and Shipping" (GKSS) right next to the Krümmel nuclear power plant has effects to this day. Through "special nuclear experiments" kept secret on the GKSS site In September 1986, a hushed up incident occurred, which after a four-year latency period led to the worldwide unique accumulation of blood cancer in this region. The authorities and researchers deny the nuclear accident and research on mini-nuclear weapons. The investigative commission, which has existed since 1992, has fallen out; six of the eight scientists resigned after a scandal in protest against the cover-up attempts by the state government of Schleswig-Holstein and the research centers Jülich and Karlsruhe involved. In this context, Prof. Wassermann, chairman of the commission, directed violent allegations to the Greens: "In Kiel, the Greens' state secretaries, Wilfried Voigt and Heriette Berg, have been campaigning for years to get rid of the annoying leukemia commission "(Junge Welt - November 04.11.2004th, 1989). In the vicinity of Geesthacht, radioactive PAC microspheres that were barely visible to the eye had been found in soil samples. Exactly the ones in the thorium high-temperature reactor, which was shut down in XNUMX (THTR) Hamm-Uentrop for the fuel elements used and manufactured in the notorious Hanau nuclear power plant. There, too, researchers found these PAC beads in the garden soil just a few hundred meters away. The fascist atomic bomb project - continued in democratic Germany - still provides a lot of explosive and what is much worse, radiation deaths! 

Further information can be found in THTR circulars no. 82 and 83.

Also at the time of fascism, the development of gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment began in Germany. By connecting several centrifuges in series, the uranium should be enriched to such an extent that it would be possible to build an atomic bomb. The Nazis never got around to using this bomb. But their scientists continued to work on it in Germany and the Netherlands after the war. In order to keep the German ambitions to build its own atomic bomb under control and at the same time to further develop economic cooperation, the "Treaty of Almelo"In 1970 the German-Dutch-British cooperation for the use of centrifuge processes for uranium enrichment was decided. The groups BNFL, UCN and Uranite founded the group for this purpose Urenco, who started up a community facility in Almelo, the Netherlands, in 1975. Forty thousand people protested against this in 1978. In 1985, the sister company went into operation in Gronau, 40 km away. The aforementioned former Nazi scientist Böttger, who was promoted to head of the Jülich nuclear research facility, was involved in the development of the gas centrifuge. Here in Jülich, the basic scientific work for Urenco takes place in the uranite branch to this day!

The development of devices for the production of the basic material for the construction of atomic bombs attracted several foreign interested parties, who were also served immediately. In 1972 Pakistan concluded the Agreement on Scientific and Technical Cooperation with the Federal Republic of Germany. Not only did the nuclear research center in Karlsruhe train Pakistani nuclear researchers, but also the German-Dutch-British joint facility in Urenco where they were able to gain a comprehensive insight into the construction plans and lists of the delivery companies. The later "Father of the Pakistani atomic bomb"and celebrated nationalist" folk hero " Abdul Quadeer Khan Between 1972 and 1975 he got all the information for the production of nuclear material that would make the world unsafe in the future. Gerhard Piper from BITS found out that 80 Pakistani scientists were still working in the nuclear research facilities in Jülich and Karlsruhe in the 55s (his article on Pakistan's nuclear arsenal from ami 11/2001 can be viewed on our homepage (news)). Khan himself studied metallurgy in Berlin and Delft in the Netherlands in the XNUMXs before joining Urenco. It was from this time that his intimate knowledge of the approximately seventy German armaments companies that later delivered UAA components to Pakistan resulted. The Urenco gas centrifuges could be recreated in this way and thus laid the foundation for the Pakistani atomic bomb.

Two years after the start of German-Pakistani cooperation, the nuclear research centers in Jülich and Karlsruhe signed cooperation agreements in 1974 India away. The simultaneous supply of two rival, extremely hostile regional powers with nuclear know-how and nuclear technology additionally heated up tensions.

The Urenco pupil Khan rose to head the nuclear laboratories in Pakistan. The atomic center there was named after him. In the 80s and 90s Khan ran a "nuclear supermarket" that made the files of the Western investigative commissions swell by leaps and bounds.

Khan himself admitted that he had supplied Iran, North Korea and Libya with drawings and equipment for building atomic bombs. Iraq and South Africa were also mentioned in this context. What is certain is that Saudi Arabia has financed a substantial part of the nuclear program in Pakistan.

Urenco, as the nucleus for the global production of nuclear weapons, plans to soon expand capacities in Gronau from 1.800 tons to 4.500 tons of uranium separation work. Then a total of around 35 nuclear power plants could be supplied beyond Germany and there will be hundreds of transports with highly enriched uranium every year - even more than before! While the Ahaus fuel element interim storage facility, only 17 kilometers away from Gronau, has become one of the most important crystallization points for atomic resistance, the UAA is barely noticed in the consciousness of many environmentalists. To think in context is obviously very difficult for large parts of the environmental movement. Perhaps that will only change when a Urenco centrifuge derivative is actually used as an atomic bomb. Public opinion is then astonished to discover that the starting point of the disaster lies in the Dutch-Westphalian border area and that the villain bin Laden is now called Abdul Qadeer Khan. Because the story is not over yet.

After the change Gaddafi from pariah to friend of the West, Libya gave the inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) some of its knowledge of where it had obtained the atomic bomb know-how in the past. The trail not only led to the inevitable Abdul qadeer khan, but this time again to Germany and South Africa. After the end of the apartheid regime in 1993, the scientists and company owners involved in the South African nuclear program looked around for new opportunities and worked with Khan, who is married to a South African woman. Most of these members of the nuclear smuggling ring have German and Swiss citizenship and work with hundreds of companies in more than 20 countries.

The public prosecutors who have been investigating for months in Germany, Switzerland and South Africa are surprised by the extent of the scandal and have already arrested several engineers and company employees. A key project is the South African uranium enrichment plant Pelindabawhich was built based on the German model. The IAEA is alarmed. She speaks of a "veritable supermarket" for all types of nuclear weapons and now considers terrorist attacks with nuclear weapons to be a "real and immediate threat"!

Not only the relations of Khan and the Pakistani military with Islamist circles have been viewed critically since September 11, 9, the 2001 South African Muslims have also come under general suspicion. After two of them were accused of attacking South African institutions and relations with Al Qaeda, the media threw themselves into reports. Al Qaeda dropout Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl admitted in front of US authorities that he had been hired to buy nuclear material in South Africa. The approval process for the planned high-temperature reactor developed with Jülich's help, the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), is currently in progress in Cape Town.

is called. South Africa wants to develop this prototype specifically in such a way that it is suitable for export to emerging countries despite the high risk of proliferation. Since the control mechanisms in the nuclear sector have completely failed in the post-apartheid era, the worst is to be feared in the planned construction of a new high-temperature reactor (HTR).

Joschka Fischer, who makes a name for himself in the media with statements about the nuclear program of the bad guy Iran, is silent about German participation in the international nuclear smuggling. The red-green state government of North Rhine-Westphalia does not do anything against the UAA in Gronau and thus nothing against the continuation of a fateful development that began in Germany many decades ago. in the NRW state election campaign we should draw attention to this in the next few months. And also on the fact that the radioactive PAC beads are now being restored at the Karlsruhe Research Center and in France. In cooperation with the AREVA concern, which is to deliver the HTR to South Africa. All of this is the opposite of leaving.

Horst Blume

The English-language, 67-page and very informative brochure "Uranium Road. Questioning South Africa's Nuclear Direction" by David Fig is available on the homepage www.boell.org.za

Am 22.10.2004 researched the journalist Johannes Dietrich in Johannisburg in the "Frankfurter Rundschau" more details:

"It has long been known that German companies helped the apartheid regime with its nuclear program. And that the Leybold Heraeus company, via Gerhard W. (Wisser; THTR-Rundbrief), delivered vacuum pumps to the Cape of Good Hope, for example, is what he usually does concealed former Pelindaba boss Waldo Stumpf is no secret. In the Pelindaba (Zulu for: silence) hidden in the hills outside Pretoria, the apartheid regime once operated a uranium enrichment plant based on the German model, which supplied the radiant raw material for seven atomic bombs.

When the bankruptcy of the white minority rule became apparent in the early 90s, the South African government mothballed its nuclear program and had the bombs dismantled. Pretoria's accomplices who were involved in the program could not be withdrawn from circulation: they are a problem today that is ringing alarm bells in the secret service centers of the western world.

`` Suddenly these people with their relevant connections are unemployed, '' says the South African military expert Helmoed-Römer Heitmann: 'It was only a matter of time before someone would fall back on this expertise.' This someone was called Abdul qadeer khan and became known worldwide as the 'Father of the Pakistani Atomic Bomb'. After the scientist, who trained in Germany among others, helped Pakistan build the atomic bomb, he set up his own business and weaved an international network that helped customers willing to pay to use nuclear technology - regardless of whether the inquiries came from Tehran, Pyongyang or Tripoli. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed el Baradei, calls Khan's network a 'veritable supermarket' for all types of nuclear weapons; and a US government official compared Khan's influence on world security in the 21st century to that of Stalin or Hitler on the previous century.

The accusations made against her client are 'extremely serious', admits Gerhard W.'s Johannisburger lawyer, Claudia Privato. And the German-South African is not alone: ​​The Karlsruhe Federal Prosecutor's Office is assuming a real atomic triangle between Germany, Switzerland and South Africa. At the beginning of September, along with the Krisch director, his long-time employee, the Swiss Daniel G. (violin; THTR circular), was arrested. At the same time, Swiss police officers examined the apartment of ex Leybold manager Gotthard L. (Lerch; THTR circular). The German had already been described by a diplomat as a 'decisive player' in international nuclear smuggling. In South Africa the police also arrested the engineer and entrepreneur Johan M. (Meyer; THTR-Rundbrief), and finally BKA officers recently arrested the Swiss Urs T .. All those arrested are said to have old connections to nuclear programs, especially the South African, have entertained and work in the orbit of Khan's supermarket.

Specifically, Gerhard W. and Daniel G. are accused of having parts of a uranium enrichment plant intended for Libya manufactured in South Africa. For this purpose, the company Trade Fin in Vanderbijlpark near Johannisburg had a computer-controlled lathe from the USA that can manufacture cylinders for gas centrifuges and high-precision piping - both essential components of a uranium enrichment system consisting of hundreds of gas centrifuges connected in series.

(...) Because the sanction-stricken revolutionary leader was looking for a way out of international isolation anyway, almost a year ago he surprisingly decided to admit the existence of a Libyan nuclear program and to invite IAEA controllers to Tripoli to wind it up. The colonel had previously betrayed his backers to the US foreign intelligence service, the CIA: In this way, the container ship 'BBC China', which was sailing under the German flag and loaded with gas centrifuges for a uranium enrichment plant, was stopped on its way to Libya.

On top of that. In the course of his metamorphosis from pariah to friend of the West, which most recently culminated in Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's visit to Libya, Ghaddafi also sent the IAEA controllers documents acquired from Pakistan, including plans to build a nuclear warhead that will target a metropolis Could lay rubble and ashes. It was also Ghaddafi who put the Western secret services on the trail of supermarket manager Khan: As a result, the Sri Lankan businessman Buhary Seyed Abu Tahir, a key figure in the Khan network, was arrested in Malaysia. Tahir apparently unpacked and came across the investigators on the German-Swiss-South African nuclear triangle. Gerhard W., who otherwise denies having any connection with the Khan network, admitted that he met Tahir at dinner. However, it was a very casual acquaintance, explains W.'s lawyer Privato. The lawyer makes no secret of the fact that both Gerhard W., Daniel G. and Johan M. once worked for the nuclear program in Pelindaba: 'It was like a family that was involved in legitimate business that you don't have to hide.' The law enforcement authorities in Germany and South Africa remain silent about how many previously unknown family members are supposed to be involved in the Khan network. 'The investigations are in full swing,' says Karlsruhe. Secret service workers assume that German technology has found its way not only to Tripoli, but also to Pyongyang and Tehran. 'A creepy idea,' sighs a diplomat. "

After a large HTR conference took place in Beijing in September 2004 (see THTR-RB No. 93), international conferences are now taking place on a monthly basis, as announced by the international atomic energy authority. This underlines how important this reactor line has become for the nuclear industry. Here are the dates in detail:

• 18. to 22. October: Second research coordination meeting "Advances in HTGR (High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor) fuel technology". Vienna, Austria
• December 6-10: Fifth research coordination meeting "Calculation of HTGR performance". Cape Town, South Africa
• 17th to 19th January 2005: 19th HTRG meeting. Manchester, UK

... said the two engineers to the court reporter of the WA on November 06.11.2004, XNUMX during his visit to the disused THTR in Hamm-Uentrop. And something else: "In the prestressed concrete container, the actual core of the nuclear reactor, there is still radioactive dust, grit and debris that we could not easily remove during decommissioning." Everything is done here for safety: "22 systems are still in operation in the 'safe enclosure', which are only used for control purposes. 180 values ​​are constantly monitored, status reports are logged: radiation, humidity, ventilation. Reisch and Thomas have to carry out 150 additional tests annually carry out, many only in the company of TÜV. 'Every six years, for example, we have to check the five-meter-thick concrete that surrounds the reactor and protects it from attacks,' says Reisch. " Motorway bridges are checked less often, he is offended. But they don't radiate as strongly as a nuclear power plant. The "journalist" never got the idea to get information from environmentalists. And he doesn't write a word about how expensive the entire shutdown is.

The cost of the THTR is a broad one. In the NRW state parliament debate on 11.11.1993/6/16.08.1994, the parliamentarians assumed construction costs of 1994 billion DM. The television program WISO on August 6,7, XNUMX stated the costs up to XNUMX at DM XNUMX billion.

The HKG (limited liability company) gives the THTR project costs up to June 1987 at 2.045 million euros and the costs for decommissioning and safe enclosure up to December 2009 at an additional 425 million euros. According to its own information, HKG only invested a total of 167 million euros in the construction, which is less than nine percent of the total volume. The taxpayer was allowed to pay the rest.

Now Gerd Jäger (VGB and RWE) and Michael Weis (VGB) have set out in the newspaper Atomwirtschaft (atw 1, 2004) to reduce the research funding for atomic energy funding from 1956 to 2002. Because: "In the past, various, sometimes extremely high figures have been disseminated through public funding for the development of nuclear energy for power generation, which have also been interpreted as 'subsidies'." - How absurd! In table 1, the "Research funding for nuclear energy and nuclear fusion 1956 to 2002 differentiated according to individual topics":

"Work on types of energy generation that do not (yet) generate electricity in Germany today. Fast breeder 3.57 billion euros, high-temperature reactor 2.39 billion euros, nuclear fusion 2.46 billion euros." Mind you, these are only expenditures by the German state for research and development (R&D funds). The decommissioning costs are therefore not included. In addition to the THTR, HTR funding also includes the costs for the AVR at the Jülich nuclear research facility. It is interesting in this context that even the atomic friends in this study come to the conclusion that in the period since 1974 a ludicrous 3,8 billion euros have been spent on researching and developing regenerative energy sources, for nuclear power a total of 15,85 billion euros .

The HTR funding was not limited to the German state. As is well known, the Swedish-Swiss group Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) and its subsidiary "HTR-GmbH" (Mannheim) carried out research on the HTR 500 and later on the "HTR module and nuclear process heat" project until at least 1992.

And what could not be more obvious than holding hands with the Swiss taxpayer? The Berner Zeitung (BZ) reported on June 12.06.1986, 1973: "From 1982 to 79,5 the federal government invested 15 million francs in the German-Swiss HTR program, and another 1988 million francs in direct federal funds are to be used by 500 to plan an HTR demonstration system with 1990 MW of electrical power. " Only the Swiss specialist company Colenco was able to top this commitment to the HTR line, which in 18.06.1990 steadfastly refused to dismantle the THTR in Hamm because it was so "environmentally friendly" and "safe from a safety point of view" (Bonner Energiereport, June XNUMX, XNUMX).

The subject of the costs of the THTR will certainly not concern us for the last time. Until 2009, more than 3 million euros in decommissioning costs are planned for the NRW budget. And then??

"Especially in the EU, there are practically no new nuclear power plants planned," quoted the "New Germany" on December 08.12.2004, XNUMX, a study carried out by the EU Greens was commissioned. A grotesque misjudgment, if it were. This is probably intended to gloss over the red-green nuclear policy. In a letter to the editor printed on December 15, Horst Blume made it clear that the response of the EU Commission to the green question he helped initiate from October 12. to promote HTR technology says exactly the opposite. Don't the green evaluators even read the highly official correspondence of their own group?

"Laurenz Meyer reacted annoyed to the city gazette" wrote the same on December 12.12.2004, XNUMX. Laurenz, the wage cone king, as the TAZ called him, is with them 23.243,67 Euros monthly (!) obviously so needy that his former employer RWE Power AG cheap electricity lend a hand. A "monetary benefit of around 1400 euros" and also a loan for building a house, because after all, he has to live somewhere. Laurenz's mouthpiece, the WA (Westfälischer Anzeiger), hastily apologized for him: "He never concealed his ties to the RWE Group." From 2006, if the nuclear industry wins the CDU election, Meyer will have to repay everything in political coins: Then the HTR will be funded even more than it was under Rotgrün!

Other episodes of this popular series in older editions: THTR Circular No. 87

Small press review: In the "Graswurzelrevolution" from November (No. 293) the article "EU wants to build HTRs" appeared and on the homepage www.grassroots.net is the article from RB No. 94 "'Competence Network for Nuclear Technology' continues research on HTRs". The resignation of the expert commission on the leukemia cases at Geesthacht has led to an unmanageable number of articles in which the THTR was repeatedly referred to. Some of them can be found on our homepage (current).

Sources:

• * Detlef zum Winkel: Geesthacht, Hanau, Leukemia, "Konkret", 12/2004
• * Sebastian Pflugbeil (Interview): An A-bomb was probably being built, Junge Welt, November 3, 11
• * Reimar Paul: A mysterious fire, Junge Welt, November 3, 11
• Steffen Schmidt: Leukemia due to a nuclear accident ?, Neues Deutschland, November 2, 11
• Christopher Schrader and Martin Urban: Laboratory denies prohibited atomic experiments, Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 3, 11
• Wor (comment): Assumptions about Geesthacht, Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 3, 11
• * Otmar Wassermann (Interview): The Greens in particular wanted to get rid of the leukemia discussion, Junge Welt, November 4, 11
• Reinhard / aaa: GKSS Research Center, anti atom aktuell, Dec. 2002, No. 136
• Süddeutsche Zeitung: The nuclear black market, SZ, January 2, 1
• Timm Kaltenow: Replenishment for nuclear splitters (Urenco ...), Greenpeace Magazin, 4/1999
• Bernard Imhasly: ​​Busy "Father of the Islamic Bomb", TAZ, December 24, 12
• Belanna Bashir: Nuclear power on hold (Pakistan / Germany), Jungle World, June 3, 6
• Chistina Hacker: The nuclear black market is flourishing, Umweltnachrichten, April 2004,
• Thomas Klein: Nuclear weapons programs were "made in Germany", Peace Forum, February 2002,
• Thomas Klein: Atomtechnik from Germany (India, Pakistan), Junge Welt, January 2, 1
• * Gerhard Piper / BITS: Pakistan's nuclear potential: scope and security problems (comprehensive presentation, 10 pages), anti-militarism information, ami 11/2001,
• Urenco Germany: company history,
• * Wolfgang Kötter: The window of vulnerability has been thrown wide (nuclear terrorism), "Friday", December 3, 12
• AFP / ND: IAEA warns of nuclear terror, Neues Deutschland, November 9, 11
• AFP / ND: Al Qaeda with dirty atomic bomb? New Germany, November 25, 11
• Nbu / FAZ: Iran wants to keep 24 centrifuges in operation (Khan ...), FAZ, November 25, 11
• Ulrich Ladurner: The Mullahs and the Bomb, Die Zeit, 11. 11. 2004
• Job / FAZ: A nuclear power plant for Pakistan, FAZ, December 5, 12
• Joachim Krause (Interview): Pakistan's German-style atomic bomb? Junge Welt, February 13, 2
• Rainer Rupp: Musharraf on the leash of Washington, action against nuclear physicist Khan encounters broad protests among the population, Junge Welt, February 4, 2
• René Heilig: Bounty deduction for head of terrorism, Pakistan: Suspected top Al-Qaida man arrested, Neues Deutschland, July 31, 7
• * Johannes Dieterich: The atomic triangle (Germans, Swiss and South Africans are said to be in contact with the nuclear technology broker Khan, Frankfurter Rundschau, October 22, 10
• * Roswitha Reich: The traces lead to Johannesburg (FRG, South Africa ...), Junge Welt, 20. 10. 2004
• * Hanna Ndlovu (Pretoria): Al Qaida in Cape Town, allegedly planned attacks in South Africa, Neues Deutschland, August 7, 8
• * Hanna Ndlovu: Nuclear syndicate uncovered in South Africa, arrests also in Germany and the USA, Neues Deutschland, September 7, 9
• * Hanna Ndlovu: German trace in the nuclear scandal, New arrests in South Africa, New Germany, September 11, 9
• Hans Leyendecker: Arrest for nuclear business (FRG, Khan, Libya ...), FAZ, November 17, 11
• Udo Buchholz: Roots of Atomic Technology (UAA / Urenco ...), aaa, Dec. 1999, No. 107
• aaa: Urenco on the world market, aaa, March 2003, No. 139
• Markus Pettrup: Uranium: The stuff that dreams of power are made of, aaa, Nov. 2000, No. 115
• Xanthe Hall, IPPNW: Atomic Power and the Bomb Are One, aaa, Dec 2001, No. 126
• "Urangate. Displacement and bribery scandal in the nuclear industry", 80 pages, Verlag Die Werkstatt Göttingen, approx. 1991 (also in detail on Pakistan, Khan etc ...)
• Atom (Atomexpress & Atommüllzeitung): uranium enrichment, a way to the bomb (to Jülich, Pakistan, Khan etc ...), May / June 1985 (!)
• Holger Strohm: Peaceful in the catastrophe, Verlag Zweiausendeins, 1981
• Robert Jungk: The Atomic State, Kindler, 1977
• Bernd Moldenhauer: The nuclear industry in the FRG, sheets for German and international politics, 10/1975

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