The reactor bust - THTR-300

My intention

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Why I have been working on "reaktorpleite.de" since 2003

As I grew up, I often heard people say: "The Holocaust? Six million murdered Jews? We knew nothing about it!"

I couldn't really believe it and suspected that completely different reasons were at play – fear, ignorance and above all the refusal to take responsibility for one's own actions or inaction.

You are responsible not only for what you do, but also for what you don't do.

Lao Tzu 

Hear nothing - say nothing - see nothing

by Werner Neubauer

When I searched the "world wide web" in 2003 for the terms - nuclear power plant, nuclear power plant, nuclear facilities, power station, THTR, HTR, PBMR, pebble bed, THTR 300 Thorium high temperature reactor Hamm-Uentrop - etc. I noticed that the Internet was full of praise and trivializing retellings from the industry's brochures, but there was hardly any critical comment, for example on the scandalous events surrounding the 'Incident' at THTR in May 1986 and also the then current developments, e.g. the planned construction of an HTR in South Africa, were kept quiet.

So I got to work and ordered the first domain - thtr-a.de - THTR-A was the name of the transport containers used to bring the spent fuel element spheres from the THTR to the interim storage facility in Ahaus.

Back in 1989, when the THTR was finally shut down, the responsible radio men quietly howled to themselves that the SPD politicians had caved in, had let them down, and weren't real men anyway, because "real men don't just close the shop when things get tough."

To this day, these nuclear power companies continue to tell the same half-true stories. The nuclear power plant operators and their well-funded lobbyists and political supporters talk about shutting down the THTR for economic reasons, and in doing so—as is their style—they simply aren't telling the whole truth.

The fact is:

1.) The construction time of the reactor was estimated to take 5 years, but it took three times as long, a whopping 15 years. The costs didn't triple during that time, no, they multiplied by 6, from the planned 650 million DM to at least 4 billion DM.

The necessary repairs to the THTR would have swallowed up billions more DM in taxpayers' money and would have given the reactor only a little more operating time.

See: The THTR breakdown list
The emergency cooling procedure NK 45 is an automatic emergency cooling process. During such emergency cooling processes, the reactor components are subjected to severe thermal stress due to temperature cycling. Therefore, the number of these emergency cooling procedures was limited to a maximum of 45. Within 10 months (from November 12.11.1985, 02.09.1986, to September 11, XNUMX), the THTR had to endure XNUMX of these emergency cooling processes.

Any other decision by politics, other than shutting down the THTR, would actually have been economic nonsense.

2.) The accident in May 1986. The incident was denied by the operating company HKG - "On which day did you say? No, there is nothing, nothing unusual happened that day!" When the incident could no longer be denied, the release of radioactivity into the environment was first denied, then admitted 'very carefully' and finally they argued about the amount of radiation that had escaped, because the measuring device had been switched off and so there was now times no exact dates.
The truth only came to light bit by bit, always just as much as could no longer be denied.

3.) The danger of proliferation (Distribution of weapons-grade material). Yuck, how indecent - we don't talk about that, neither then nor now, on the Internet, nor in the glossy brochures of the industry. Although these gentlemen know very well that it is very easy to remove fuel from pebble bed reactors, as this is an important part of the system of a pebble bed reactor. The freshly enriched, approx. 6 cm large uranium balls come in at the top and fall out again at the bottom as fully hatched, handy plutonium portions.
An ideal starting material for building bombs at home after work.

4.) Disposal. Is it really worth talking about? This soothing-sounding neologism is just a linguistic joke anyway. Just like the ending in 'final storage', there is no 'disposal' and no 'final storage', at most there is a postponement of the problem until tomorrow by means of interim storage - Manjana, Manjana.
In a few hundred years, our descendants will be much smarter than we are anyway; if humanity survives that!

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The nuclear lobbyists tell us that nuclear power can protect the climate, no CO2 and so on... - Hurrah, hurrah, and how well that fits in with the spirit of the times! It's not true, but it sounds good!

Nuclear power is not a solution - The energy cliff -
by Jan Willem Storm van Leeuwen

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What is it really about:

cancer studies

When will the health risks of nuclear power plants finally be comprehensively and seriously investigated?

We need cancer studies without bad compromises. Not a childhood cancer study with questionable restrictions - 'But please only in the vicinity of nuclear power plants that still produce electricity' - no, comprehensive cancer studies that include all people and all nuclear facilities, including long-closed facilities or test sites. Research and test facilities such as those in Jülich and Hamm as well as the former uranium mining sites in the Ore Mountains, production facilities such as the interim storage facility in Ahaus, Urenco in Gronau and the GKSS sites ... and much more.

Addendum - There are now some 'Radioactivity studies'.

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How can one propagate the 'war on terror' on the one hand and, on the other hand, ensure the global proliferation of nuclear weapons-grade material?

The civil nuclear industry and the arms industry work highly lucratively, effectively and hand in hand. Some spread the material for building dirty bombs all over the world. The others are arming the police and the military so that they can fight the terrorists and bring back the scattered radioactive material, worldwide.

Please refer: 'War on terror'

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Where did all the coal go? Where is it stored?
In Switzerland, in Lichtenstein or in the Caribbean ?!

Only several billion DM and later at least as many billions of euros in tax money wandered through the pockets of the nuclear industry. Was everything kosher?

Please refer: 'Corruption and revolving door'

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Questions upon questions, we are looking for answers. Help us!

I, built in 1957, have very good memories of the events around the THTR in the years 1986 - 1989 and therefore consider it my task to document the history from my point of view before the great forgetfulness strikes me too.

Similarities with other living people are not excluded ... ;-)

I make no claim to completeness of my research and/or total technical insight, which means:
You are cordially invited to participate in both 'reaktorpleite.de' and the 'THTR-Rundbrief'.

Contact: Werner Neubauer

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THTR-300

The thorium high-temperature reactor in Hamm-Uentrop, Schmehausen

Pebble bed reactor with 300 MW output

The nuclear reactor THTR-300 in Hamm-Uentrop, Schmehausen was shut down in 1989 because the operating company couldn't get the reactor under control and tried to "sweep under the carpet" the really big problems - such as the radioactive contamination of the environment in May 1986.

See: History # The accident

Problems like those in the incident on May 04th and 05th, 1986 at the THTR in Hamm-Uentrop and just a few days earlier on April 26th, 1986 - with much more serious consequences - in Chernobyl NPP became visible, the attentive observer must recognize today at nuclear facilities worldwide...

See: News

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Nuclear lobby

It is noticeable systematic approach the so-called Responsible person in dealing with accidents in nuclear plants or their cover-up. This procedure is always and everywhere quite similar ...

Therefore, the experiences that we opponents of the THTR have gained in tranquil Hamm since the 1970s can be quite helpful, even 50 years later, even deeper ones will provide insights in enabling current events.

The reaktorpleite.de aims to make people - worldwide - help to see through and dispel the 'fog of corruption'. Those responsible on site and the Nuclear lobby use the same strategies around the world to cover up the truth.

And the truth is, it's all about money. Regardless of whether over international arms exports - arms trade there is talk or about the fact that nuclear power plants, Football stadiums or Waste incineration plants Large sums of money are being pumped into the landscape from the very beginning, as construction projects are planned. Much of this money, to the delight of cement manufacturers and construction companies, ends up in the ground as concrete – but sooner and/or later, some of it also ends up as... Landscape maintenance = bribe on the accounts of politicians, lobbyists, employees of the supervisory authorities and many other responsible persons, multipliers and decision-makers.

There are beneficiaries and takers of dirty money at all levels...

And so, of course, there are also particularly good commissioned writers, called "noble pens," who write truly wonderful stories—for example, about clean, cheap nuclear energy, etc.—and who are paid exceptionally well for these modern fairy tales. But the most expensive figures in this system of corruption are, of course, the "oh-so-serious" politicians, as long as they are considered irreproachable. In recent years, however, the type of politician in the service of capital has also changed dramatically. I refer to this new type of politician-actor as "Super gvaliant statesmen, pocket filler or quite simply Horror clowns"...

The hour of the killer clowns 

Today, capital no longer relies so much on technocrats and manager types, but rather on populists, authoritarian joke figures like Don Trumpl, etc. ...

I hope reading reaktorpleite.de can help to clear up some of this fog!

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Hubris, fraud, corruption? Not just in the nuclear industry...

Joke on the edge and completely beside the topic; but then the one that is no longer so new occurs to me Berlin Airport BER one that Elbphilharmonie and the downhill train station Stuttgart 21 Etc. ...

All these major construction projects have one thing in common: they were and are almost exclusively, but abundantly, taxpayers' money burned or diverted.

Responsible is amazingly always the same: None!

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The nuclear industry is something very special!

Because this isn't just about problems caused by carelessness, stupidity, corruption, greed, shoddy construction, and the immense waste of taxpayers' money...

The Greenpeace 2010 Atomic Subsidy Study says:
In Germany alone, the nuclear industry grew from 1950 to 2010 204 billion Euros. "Cleaning up after them" will cost taxpayers at least another 100 billion euros!

Of the Risks to democracy and the totally inadequate Insurance for nuclear facilities etc. I have in History written.

See: History # Arguments against the nuclear industry

The central problem with the nuclear industry, or the entire uranium industry, is the systematic trivialization of radioactive radiation.

The nuclear supporters, beaming as ever, claim to have everything under control - critics point to unforeseeable time periods and unforeseeable, long-term consequences and risks of radioactive radiation.
 

What is low-level radioactive radiation and what are its consequences?

low-level radioactive radiation accumulates completely unnoticed in the living organism, accumulates there and causes in the long run very similar Symptoms of radiation sickness like short-term, massive radiation!

However, because the effects of this low radiation may only become clearly visible many years or generations later, the Polluters stay very calm. Nobody will be able to prove anything to you after so many years!

The relevant publications by Andrei Sakharov (1958) and Prof Ernest J Sternglass (1977) as well as several more recent ones Studies on low radiation are not really known to the general public or have been successfully pushed out of public consciousness.

Continue reading: Problems with the nuclear industry

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Donation appeal

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