The THTR Circulars from 2011

***

***

THTR Circular No. 134, Jan. 2011

Content:

News services for the thorium industry

*

Insights into Indian and Pakistani nuclear programs

*

Atomwirtschaft-Zeitung actually reports on PBMR end!

*

News services for the thorium industry

Uranium is becoming scarce and it is better not to operate nuclear power plants any more? - "No problem, there is now thorium as a harmless substitute!" claims the industry is playing down. So that this previously little noticed message gets more attention, the bustling former President of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Hans-Georg Wieck, helps a little with his own "messages". And also participates as a partner in a very special company that promises to solve the world's energy problems. Can the nuclear industry breathe a sigh of relief now? - Wieck intervenes.

As a former intelligence agent, Wieck knows how to find the right time for political intervention. And as a former German ambassador to India, he knows the situation in the country with the enormous amounts of thorium very well. In 88 he wrote in the publication series "Reports & Studies" No. 2007 of the CSU-affiliated Hans Seidel Foundation, one of his preferred cooperation partners:

"The US-Indian agreement of 2005 on cooperation in the field of civilian use of nuclear energy is of epoch-making importance in strategic terms Day to be able to use the great thorium mineral resources for nuclear energy production. Patents of the Russian scientist Professor Lev Maximov, Novosibirsk, are available "(1)

Amorphous thorium is said to lead to "amorphous" anti-atomic resistance

Wieck cleverly wants to make thorium reactors in Germany palatable at the expense of the old, problematic reactor lines in a draft that he also wrote in 2007 and is accessible on the Internet. He mentions the "possible misuse of accumulating plutonium for the production of nuclear explosives as well as the known risks of reprocessing" and "problems with the disposal of nuclear waste" in order to bring a special variant of the thorium reactors into play as an apparent alternative:

"All previous experiments were based on the use of thorium in a crystalline state, e.g. in the AVR reactor Jülich (1967-1988), Dragon reactor in Winfrith, GB (1964-1973), in the peach bottom test facility (USA from 1967 to 1974), as well as in the Kamini and Kalpakkam experimental reactors in India (1996) Thorium as a basic element of nuclear fuel. The Karapar 300 and 1 plants in India only use thorium as a fuel base, but the problems encountered with the use of thorium as a fuel - high cost of fuel production, as well as some weapon-related problems (sic!) And the Problems of the reintegration of the fuel - could not be solved satisfactorily so far. So why replace uranium with thorium 'nuclear fuel' at all? " (2)

- Because the great professor Lev Maximov from Novosibirsk found the solution to the problem and patented it on August 17, 8 under the international application number PCT / RU2006 / 2006! No longer ceramic, but rather amorphous (formless, partially disordered molecular structures) thorium should be used here.

In December 2009, the former diplomat Wieck explained it again to the somewhat dubious public:

"Like amorphous nuclear fuel, the way in which the reactor is controlled and the arrangement of the fuel elements in the reactor itself belong to the generation of nuclear energy, which is based on the use of thorium the fission products that form nuclear fission should not be able to remove from the nuclear fuel with conventional chemical processes, but with purely physical processes. According to Professor Maximow's process, this is done by using amorphous thorium. " (3)

What now follows is a very clearly understandable attempt to persuade Wieck, which would have done any vacuum cleaner representative to the credit:

"Professor Maximow has turned to competent German research institutions with his patents, since Germany is no longer concerned with the environmental and safety-related perfecting of the third generation of nuclear power plants that is now under construction and therefore, in his opinion, not yet experimental verified, but theoretically developed conception of a risk-free or low-risk procedure for the use of nuclear energy should be open. The presentation had a positive response from a scientific and technological point of view. " (4)

The telling past of a service provider

To get a first impression of who is so persistently committed to thorium reactors, let's take a look at what Wikipedia reveals about Hans-Georg Wieck:

"From 1954 to 1993 he was a civil servant at the Foreign Office. Among other things, he was ambassador to Iran, the USSR and India as well as permanent representative of the Federal Republic of Germany in the North Atlantic Council (NATO) the Federal Intelligence Service until 1985. After leaving the civil service, he was head of the OSCE advisory and observer group in Minsk, Belarus from 1990 to 1998. From 2001 to September 1996 he was chairman of the Indo-German Society. " (5)

As early as the 50s Wieck was working as a diplomat with the inner circle of those who had seized control of power in the new FRG state after the defeat of fascism. As ambassador to Iran and the Soviet Union and as permanent representative of the Federal Republic of Germany in the North Atlantic Council (NATO), his political action was embedded in the anti-communist conflict between East and West during the Cold War. At the height of his career from 1985 to 1990, as President of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), he had access to a wide range of exclusive information or relationships of a political, military and economic nature. His subsequent activity as ambassador to India (1990 - 1993) and his "civil society work" as chairman of the Indo-German Society (DIG) from 1996 to 2008 also give another indication of why he is so particularly interested in thorium: India has about a quarter of the world's thorium reserves.

Honorable memory of Nazis is part of the "cultural core" of all civilization!

In 2005, a piquant argument with the then Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer showed the awareness that even 60 years after the end of fascism still shaped the functional elite of the German state. It was about the obituary practice in the in-house bulletin of the Federal Foreign Office (AA). Foreign Minister Fischer decreed that in the event of death among the numerous former NSDAP members in the service of the FRG, the death report should only be written neutrally. Seventy employees of the diplomatic service demanded in their signature action from Fischer that the deceased should continue to be honored with the following addition: "We will keep him / her honorable memory". (...) According to the newspaper, the critics' letter states that honoring the dead is part of the "cultural core" of all civilization. "(6). Wieck was one of the supporters of this very special honor for former Nazis - a really very significant "cultural core"!

"Discussion group" as a lobby for BND interests

Together with colleagues from the BND, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD) and various scientists and politicians, Hans-Georg Wieck founded the "Intelligence Service in Germany Discussion Group" in agreement with the then head of the Chancellery and former Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier "(GKND). The official aim of this organization is to "contribute objectively to a constructive and public discussion about the secret intelligence services" (7). Since then, various conferences, series of publications and publications have been presented to a more or less handpicked "public", especially in cooperation with the party-affiliated foundations. The unofficial motives were probably the comradely exchange of ideas and the defense against indiscretions and criticism.

Former Nazis in the BND continue to work

This defense should come soon. The American historian Timothy Naftali reported in the journal "Foreign Affairs" on the numerous NSDAP members and war criminals who the "Organization Gehlen" had accepted as a forerunner of the BND and who continued to mischief in the BND for several decades. In defending against this criticism, Wieck condemned "the polemical approach" of critics, as it was "not a good breeding ground for a sober analysis of the overall circumstances of the immediate post-war period" (8) offer.

These statements by Wieck also take place against the background that the BND (like the CIA) knew two years before the Israelis "under which name Adolf Eichmann, the organizer of the murder of Jews, was hiding in Argentina", but nothing about his arrest undertook.

Right sheets as organs of announcement

In 2006 Wieck explained in great detail the wide range of tasks of the BND in the monthly magazine "MUT": "The Federal Intelligence Service works in all areas, military as well as political, economic, technological and other specific areas such as international drug trafficking and money laundering" (9) It is very remarkable in which magazine he says this. "MUT" was founded in 1965 and was affiliated with the militant right-wing radical "Action Resistance". Even the liberal "Zeit" reported with horror:

"The paper was christened by Bernhard Christian Wintzek (born 1943). The former NPD candidate for the Bundestag is still the publisher and editor-in-chief of the magazine today (also in 2010 !; HB). Wintzek became known as a co-initiator of the" Action Resistance " who militantly fought the new Ostpolitik of the social-liberal coalition at the beginning of the seventies - with slogans like: "Brandt on the wall" and "Hang the traitors". (...) The NPD was criticized from the right: too lax! " (10)

About the questionable "transformation" of the right-wing radical newspaper 20 years later, "Die Zeit" wrote in the above-mentioned edition: "Courage, says Arno Klönne, is a remarkable example of how the dividing lines between the conservative and the right-wing extremist, the neoconservative and the new right-wing political discourse will evaporate. "

The fact that Wieck's contribution to the controversial magazine "MUT" was no exception is shown by his long interview in the new-right "Junge Freiheit" (No. 28) in 2010 on the subject of "industrial espionage". As the former President of the Federal Intelligence Service, he knew exactly which paper he was dealing with. He will have chosen his medium carefully. In 2004 I wrote about this paper: "After the electoral hopes of the 'Junge Freiheit' on the 'Republicans' were shattered in the 90s, they tried to put the established right-wing conservatism under pressure by using important terms and formulas appropriated within the dispute for themselves in order to revalue them in a folkish-nationalist way "(11).

Customer-oriented commitment to the "domestic" nuclear industry

In the book "Always at your service. The BND between fascist roots and the new world order", the authors emphasize the following aspect of the services' publication practice: "For the BND, it is not necessarily about improving its self-image in the press, but rather about to launch certain information that he would like to see printed "(12). Accordingly, Wieck's thorium articles have the task of bringing the "domestic" nuclear variant, which has fallen behind internationally, back into the public discussion, especially since the starting conditions for this have improved significantly with the deselection of red-green at the federal level. The (former) BND staff would have become the mouthpiece of a specific faction in the nuclear industry.

This impression is reinforced when one reads that August Hanning, also like Wieck co-author in the series "The role of the intelligence services in political decision-making processes", wrote: "Intelligence services are service providers for politics, security authorities and the armed forces. The top priority for every service provider, and in it if intelligence services do not differ from service providers in the private sector, the customer focus is "(13). This series of publications appeared in the CSU-affiliated Hans Seidel Foundation. The intensive cooperation of the "German Intelligence Service Discussion Group" (GKND) with the foundations of the CDU / CSU and FDP cannot be overlooked and shows who is primarily one of the recipients of the above-mentioned "services".

Party-affiliated foundations as BND instruments

Now the above-mentioned party-affiliated foundations tend to interfere with perfidious methods in certain countries of Latin America on the side of the right-wing contras, where liberation movements are on the way to alleviate the lot of the poor a little. - And what "civil society" task does Wieck take on as a former ambassador to the former Soviet Union? - He is a board member of "Association Human Rights in Belarus". Now, as opponents of nuclear power plants, who are also dealing with the contaminated areas in Belarus, we know only too well that President Lukashenko is brutally suppressing the opposition in his country and in many cases disregarding human rights. Nevertheless, we also know that the situation of social (!) Human rights in Belarus is not that bad for many people in comparison to Eastern Europe. If, of all things, the neoliberal strategists from the parties to which the BND is at the service should have the say here, the people in Belarus could in future choose their "Berlusconi" in free and secret ballot, but they would possibly be dependent on food deliveries in order to not to starve. - Wieck in a patronizing pose as a parcel mailer in a country plundered by corporations would certainly be the next PR measure of the BND staff.

Cooperation with Croatian fascists and nationalists to secure German spheres of influence

In this context, reference should also be made to the role of the BND in the run-up to the Yugoslav Wars of Disintegration of 1991-95, which were a continuation of the front line in World War II in Yugoslavia. The genocide of the Croatian Ustashas, ​​allied with fascist Germany, against the Serbs in Croatia in 1941-45 continued for decades and in the opinion of the former ARD correspondent Ulrich Schiller "essential ideas and principles of this rule survived and found their way into" (14) to today's Croatia.

In his 2010 book "Germany and 'his' Croatians. From Ustasa Fascism to Tudjmann's Nationalism", he describes the role of the BND and its then boss Wieck in the destruction of Yugoslavia in order to secure the spheres of influence that had been striven for under Nazi Germany. According to this, the most important prerequisites for the BND to exert influence on the Croatian secret service "were only laid at the end of the 1980s" (15). So exactly during Wieck's term of office. According to Schiller's information, the following was agreed in February 1990:

"1. Cooperation in the action against Yugoslavia and Serbia; 2. The BND provides the Croats with all information relating to Yugoslavia, including military-military information. So Antun Duhacek, and further: 'The German side demanded total subordination of the Croatian service for its services, and it got it.' In February 1990 the BND boss was not called Klaus Kinkel, but Hans-Georg Wieck, former ambassador in Moscow, BND boss from 1990 to 1985. I occasionally asked Ambassador Wieck to talk about Croatia at an event in Berlin, and the answer was a regretful no "(16).

Wieck preferred not to speak in public about the joint responsibility of Germany and the BND in thousands of murders and infinite suffering in the former Yugoslavia. He founded his "discussion group" only 13 years later, when the matter had grown grass.

To be a former BND president and then German ambassador to India - an interesting combination! Not only the rivalries between the Indian and Pakistani secret services, but also the atomic bomb arms race between the two warring states were certainly very revealing. The activities of the "father of the Pakistani atomic bomb" Abdul Quadeer Khan (17) in neighboring Pakistan and its nuclear procurement tours in the Federal Republic of Germany partly fell into Wieck's "active" time, which was used in many ways. Probably because of this, Wieck's message today is: With the super-safe, original German thorium technology, such a bomb theater would not have existed in the first place - which, by the way, is not true.

"One or more percent fissile uranium or plutonium" - completely harmless ??

Now to the new miracle reactors with thorium in the amorphous state as fuel. Wieck and Rudolf König write in their elaboration "Amorphous Thorium ..." (18) from November 2007:

"In Lev Maximow's patent application, the amorphous nuclear fuel is described as follows: The fuel is based on metallic thorium and its alloys with the addition of one or more percent fissile uranium and / or plutonium-239 isotopes as an ignition material."

This use of "one or more percent fissile uranium and / or plutonium-239 isotopes" involves great risks, as the "Austrian Ecology Institute" found in a study for the Austrian Ministry of Life:

"The radiotoxicity of plutonium and uranium should not be underestimated. The inhalation of 40 billionths (!) Grams of Pu-239 is sufficient to reach the limit value of the annual activity intake for inhalation in workers. A few kilograms of 239-Pu (about the size of a tennis ball Bullet) can - theoretically - kill everyone if everyone inhales a part of it. Plutonium has a high long-term toxicity with its relatively short half-life of 24.000 years. 233-U is just as toxic and has a half-life of 159.000 Years. " (19)

Since thorium (Th-232) alone cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction, but is only a breeding material, neutrons have to be added to it. This can be done with uranium (U-235) or, as planned in India, with plutonium (Pu-235). The result is fissile uranium (U-233), which is suitable as a nuclear fuel:

Th-232 + Pu-239 = U-233

From: "Reactors for Tomorrow", 1975 (!), Page 22, Kraftwerk Union

Wieck and König praise their concept as follows: "The complete suppression of the production of plutonium and other transurans; the avoidance of excess reactivity, as it exists in today's nuclear power plants (...). There is no processing of the spent Nuclear fuel. " (20)

The "Austrian Ecology Institute" assesses the alleged "prevention of the production of plutonium" as follows:

"The clever argument of the nuclear industry that the use of thorium reactors could limit the production of new plutonium and reduce the inventory of existing weapons-grade plutonium should be treated with caution. We believe that the thorium economy is no less dangerous than the plutonium economy Neutron bombardment of the thorium isotope Th-232 creates the no less dangerous uranium isotope U-233, which, like Pu-239, can be used both for nuclear reactors and for nuclear weapons because of its critical mass.

In addition, the uranium isotope U-232 is also formed. This isotope creates short-lived daughter products (e.g. TI-208) which, as gamma emitters, make the handling, reprocessing and "recycling" of U-233 more difficult. "(21)

Thorium: Trojan horse for re-entry into breeder technology and remanufacturing

A reprocessing, in which plutonium and uranium is separated from spent fuel elements in order to be able to reuse it, is therefore very much necessary for thorium reactors, contrary to the information provided by König and Wieck. Because if fresh reactor fuel is produced (hatched) from the used fuel, this fast breeder needs reprocessing. "There is an urgent suspicion that, under the guise of Generation IV, attempts are being made to revive the concepts for breeder reactors that have long been discarded for safety reasons" (22) writes the "Austrian Ecology Institute".

In the opinion of critical scientists, the promotion of thorium reactors as a way out of the scarce uranium reserves represents a skilful attempt to reintroduce dangerous reprocessing through the back door into strategic energy policy considerations. In this context it should be pointed out that especially with (ex) "intelligence services" it is not only important which pleasant phrases they use about "completely new harmless torium reactors", but which real intentions and interests are behind them hide.

India and the USA have meanwhile not remained idle in the preparation of the construction of a reprocessing plant: "The USA and India signed an agreement on July 30, 2010 that will allow India to reprocess contract-related American nuclear material" (23)

Nuclear weapons production is made easier!

Since thorium and uranium or plutonium can easily be separated chemically, the theft of fresh fuel elements would open up an elegant way of building bombs. For example, about 5.000 to 10.000 fresh THTR fuel assemblies contain enough U-235 to make a Hiroshima-like bomb.

The Austrian Energy Institute summarizes: "A switch to fast breeders means, however, a continuation of the plutonium and thorium economy to an extent that has never happened before. Lots of highly toxic materials such as plutonium and uranium isotopes like coal or crude oil would be lost half the world. That should be avoided at all costs "(24).

Norway no longer wants thorium reactors

Norway has the third richest occurrence of thorium in the world and politicians there stated in the study "Thorium as an Energy Source - Opportunities for Norway" (25) in 2008 to examine whether thorium reactors would represent a realistic energy policy option for this country. The TAZ wrote in 2009: "At that time the strong thorium lobby had started a debate about the supposed advantages of this technology, which also prompted the state-owned electricity company Statkraft to signal interest in a reactor" (26).

The results of the study were sobering: "A thorium reactor produces less long-lived nuclear waste than a nuclear power plant with uranium fuel rods. This is also more stable than conventional nuclear waste. In return, it emits more radiation, which complicates transport and storage. What is decisive, according to the study, is that that the thorium technology does not solve the atomic waste problem either. In addition, there is much stronger radioactive radiation when the reactor is in operation . 'The thorium debate should now be a closed chapter', believes Nils Bøhmer, atomic expert at the environmental protection organization Bellona: 'Hopefully the politicians are now dealing with real solutions to the climate problem.' "(27)

The government and radiation protection authorities in Norway rejected the construction of thorium reactors in 2009. The nuclear industry and its propagandists in other countries are all the more anxious to keep their thorium topic in public discussion.

"The company" appears

Despite the improved framework conditions during the grand coalition (and the subsequent Black and Yellow), the thorium reactor project did not make good progress. Reason enough for Wieck to show the much-cited market economy initiative. A "Society for the Promotion of Promising Patents - Development, Assessment, Publication and Exploitation" with the somewhat awkward name "SBE Safe and Affordable Energy" was founded. The aforementioned Prof. Lew Maximow is the managing director, the zealous thorium journalists Wieck and Rudolf König are shareholders.

With "five groundbreaking inventions for the construction and modernization of power plants", the gentlemen who are well into retirement want to stir up the global energy market. From "urea production" to the use of amorphous thorium for environmentally friendly power generation, the agile company has a lot on offer. "The SBE also takes on the evaluation of third-party inventions, their patentability and the possible optimization, supplementation and financing of patent applications as well as their commercial exploitation". In the article "Development of Safe Nuclear Fuels - A Need of the Hour" (28) Wieck gives the strategic direction: "Nuclear energy is unpopular in Germany and yet important. The risks of the seventeen nuclear power plants in operation in Germany, over 200 in Europe and over 450 worldwide are known and are kept under control as much as possible. Incidents are not exclude, also occur with us. "

And the company has the solutions ready for these problems. Herbert Wellner, lawyer and notary at SBE, sums up the grandiose advantages of the planned thorium reactors. They are "not weapons-grade, outside of the application process not radiant". Accordingly, they grant "the greatest possible protection against terrorist attacks and accidents" and of course "safe and environmentally friendly underground storage of the processed materials" (29). Problems in Asse, Gorleben and Schacht Konrad - according to the new method, that's all yesterday's news.

Further questions? What at first glance looks like a fake from the satirical newspaper "Titanic" is evidently meant seriously. The various contributions by the SBE company are obviously intended to reinforce the impression of the international internet and blogger community that the most important development steps and patents for the realization of the thorium miracle reactor have long since been carried out. And now the German government should finally get more involved in research and development of Generation IV reactors. That is the message behind it. Because in certain forums and on the Internet letters to the editor of certain conservative newspapers, the litany of alleged advantages of the new reactor line has been prayed down for years and worriedly asked when our CDU / CSU will finally step out of the shade of red-green and courageously tackle a new nuclear option ?

However, it doesn't happen that quickly. Since the patent application by the fabulous Maximow in 2006, a lot of hot air has been produced, but little has been implemented in concrete terms. Basically, this has been the case with thorium reactors since the 50s. Billions of euros were wasted on a senseless and dangerous nuclear experiment. The SBE website has not been updated for six months. Nothing groundbreaking seems to have happened. What remains is a small propaganda component in the structure of the nuclear advertising strategy.

Business doesn't seem to be going so well for Wieck, who is used to success. In 1987, "Der Spiegel" reported in its article "With feudal behavior and political prejudices BND boss Wieck falls into the twilight" about his unusual travel habits as BND president: "Wieck was befittingly in the Lufthansa First Class for around 10.000 Marks jetted to South America. Behind the Lufthansa Boeing followed the three-engine BND-owned Falcon 50 jet aircraft (acquisition cost: 7,3 million dollars), which Wieck usually needs for quick sprints between Pullach and Bonn "(30). - Today you can read on his homepage: "Publications can only be reprinted with the permission of the publisher; unpublished articles can be published for a nominal fee of 50 euros and by sending a specimen copy ..."

The situation in India

India's economic growth has been rapid in recent years. Not only will the demand for energy increase enormously, but also the social injustice associated with this development. The middle and upper classes benefit, the several hundred million (!) Poorer people are left behind. The mining of huge amounts of raw materials (including uranium) and the construction of hundreds of dams threaten India's indigenous people (Adivasis) in particular in rural areas. The Indian state is setting up "special economic zones" in which international corporations do not have to meet any environmental requirements. Some of the inhabitants originally living there are driven away without compensation and plunged into misery. The magazine "Südasien" reports:

"An approximate estimate is 60 million refugees and people displaced by construction projects. That is four times as many people as were exchanged between India and the two wings of Pakistan at the time of partition. The majority of those displaced by projects are tribesmen and landless Dalits, who live on or on communal property. And barely 20 percent of them have been compensated so far ". (31)

The inconsiderate industrialization associated with inner-Indian imperialism met with resistance, especially in the huge dam projects. Struggles for water, energy generation and against industrial great power ambitions not only lead to non-violent ecological resistance movements, but also to the strengthening of a Maoist guerrilla who are waging a brutal war on all sides in the so-called "red belt" in a dozen Indian states. It is hardly reported in Europe.

Only a few hundred meters from the THTR site in Hamm-Uentrop is the largest South Indian Hindu temple in Europe, from which around 20.000 people move every year in May / June. Information about the Sri Kamadchi Ampal Temple: www.kamadchi-ampal.de

The Indian nuclear program

Two commercial nuclear power plants have been in operation in India since 1969. In the meantime, 19 nuclear power plants produce around 2,5 percent of India's electricity. The target is 2050 percent by 25. The German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) writes: "Many observers are skeptical, however, because India has planned to expand nuclear energy more often in the past, but has never implemented it" (32). "Prognos" cites an important reason for this: "Since India has not yet signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, there were limited international trade relations for nuclear energy technology and fuels. As a result, the development of Indian technology took place in isolation. A relaxation of this trade embargo will result India can increasingly work together with other countries such as China, Russia and the USA "(33).

The "Energy Report India 2007" of the New Delhi Embassy describes past and planned developments as follows:

"The civil Indian nuclear program is structured in three stages and aims to minimize the dependence on uranium, which only occurs in small quantities in India, and instead to use the rich thorium reserves in the medium term. The first stage of the program, the mastery of the The prototype of the fast breeder currently under construction, which uses the plutonium produced in the existing NPPs, marks the beginning of the second stage of the program. Thorium is also used in the fast breeders for the production of uranium-233, which then - this would be the third stage of the nuclear program - will in the distant future be the fuel for the most modern generation of nuclear power plants "(34).

Thorium and remanufacturing in India

The monthly magazine "atw" wrote in 2007 about the status of the development of the thorium reactor line:

"The Bhabha Nuclear Research Center (BARC) is currently working on an advanced thorium reactor with a capacity of 300 MW (Advanced Heavy Water Reactor: AHWR) to demonstrate the use of thorium as a nuclear fuel and an advanced safety concept. The construction is under way planned at the location of the nuclear research center. The physical properties and important components are tested in individual test arrangements "(35).

"Atw" wrote about the development of the fast breeder and the reprocessing:

"India's nuclear energy program is based on the 'closed nuclear fuel cycle', which includes the reprocessing of the spent nuclear fuel and the recycling of plutonium and U-233 in the nuclear fuel. India operates a pilot plant for fuel reprocessing in Trombay, in which nuclear fuels from research reactors are processed and 2 commercial reprocessing plants in Tarapur and Kalpakkam for nuclear fuel from nuclear power plants. The first U-233 was extracted from irradiated thorium fuel in 1970 "(36).

The cooperation with the USA and the signing of the nuclear deal in 2010 opened up new perspectives for reprocessing:

"India and the United States have officially signed a nuclear fuel reprocessing and reprocessing agreement that will allow US companies to secure part of India's $ 150 billion nuclear power market. (...) India has an ambitious program for the development of civil nuclear energy to meet the country's growing energy needs with a goal of increasing its installed capacity more than sevenfold to 35.000 MWe by 2022 and 60.000 by 2032 "(37).

The transfer of know-how in the field of thorium reactors has also been agreed. The Indian engineering and construction company "Punj Lloyd" has signed a cooperation agreement with the US-based company "Thorium Power": "The nuclear sphere is very promising and with this partnership we are pursuing the goal of India's long-standing commitment to 'thorium Fuel Cycle ', said the group's managing director (38).

Various other partnerships and supply contracts for nuclear power plants were signed in 2010 in cooperation with Russia, France and Canada. The subject of "India and nuclear power" will therefore remain very topical.

Notes:

1. Reports & Studies No. 88 "Energy supply as a security challenge", page 219
2. See: Rudolf König and Hans-Georg Wieck: Amorphous Thorium - Basis of a Nuclear Fuel for Safe Nuclear Power Plants of the Future ": http://www.hans-georg-wieck.com/data/Amorphes%20Thorium.pdf
3. Hans-Georg Wieck: "Development of safe nuclear fuels - a need of the hour" under "Forum" in http://www.sbe-international.com/
4. See 3.
5. See: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans-Georg_Wieck
6. Der Spiegel from March 27, 3: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,348452,00.html
7. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/GKND
8. Quoted from "Freitag" on June 16, 6, Otto Köhler
9. "MUT" No. 471, 2006
10. "Die Zeit" from February 26, 2
11. "Grassroots Revolution" No. 285, 2004. Horst Blume: "Well-known, young cheeky" ".
12. Saskia Henze, Johann Knigge: "Always at your service", Unrast Verlag Münster, 1997, p. 63
13. Studies & Comments 10, 2010, Hans Seidel Foundation, page 36
14. Ulrich Schiller "Germany and, his' Croats" Donat Verlag 2010, page 140
15. See 14.
16. See 14.
17. Quadeer Kader Khan in THTR circular no. 95, 98, 99, 104, 111, 118
18. See 2.
19. "Science or Fiction. Does Atomic Energy Have a Future?"; Austrian Ecology Institute; November 2007, page 14 http://www.ecology.at/files/pr577_2.pdf
20. See 2.
21. See 19.
22. See 19., page 15
23. Nuclear Forum Switzerland on August 5, 8
24. See 19., page 15
25. "Thorium as an Energy Source - Opportunities for Norway": http://www.regjeringen.no/upload/OED/Rapporter/ThoriumReport2008.pdf
26. TAZ of March 6, 1
27. See 26.
28. In: http://sbe-international.com/
29. See 28.
30. "Der Spiegel" from October 19, 10: http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13525562.html
31. "South Asia" 1/2010, page 24, Walter Fernandes
32. "Energy Market India 2010", page 31, GTZ (German Society for Technical Cooperation)
33. "Renaissance of Nuclear Energy?" Page 94. "Prognos", on behalf of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection
34. "India. Annual Energy Policy Report". New Delhi Embassy, ​​2007, 10
35. "atw" May 2007, page 348
36. See 34.
37. “Business News from India,” page 9, August 2010
38. "Business News from India", January 2009

Almost two years after the foreseeable end of the PBMR in South Africa, the magazine "atw" (nuclear industry) is only now reporting on the inglorious end of the bankruptcy reactor. To this day, innumerable nuclear power-friendly websites are still fantasizing about the bright future of the high-temperature reactor in South Africa. They helped themselves through the stalled implementation with all sorts of windy reports about "cooperations" and "talks" with interested countries like Kuwait or Algeria. But now even the leading German nuclear industry newspaper has to meekly acknowledge the facts.

The notorious nuclear propagandists not only confirm the previous budget of around 1 billion euros for the PBMR development, but also name the costs that would be expected if the project were to be pursued:

"Further investments in the amount of well over 30 billion ZAR (approx. 3,3 billion EUR) are to be expected" (atw, issue 10, 2010, page 666). - It's great that the public learns about these estimated exorbitant additional costs at least afterwards!

And Barbara Hogan, Minister for State Enterprises, gave further reasons for discontinuing the PBMR development:

"PBMR Ltd. had not succeeded in attracting long-term third-party investors to a sufficient extent and within the agreed period. NGNP) (was) no longer given after the Japanese partner of PBMR Ltd, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (MHI), withdrew from the program at the beginning of 2010 "(atw).

Parts of the university's nuclear research were also discontinued: "The Fuel Development Laboratory and the Helium Test Facility would be shut down. The Heat Transfer Test Facility at Northwest University would also be shut down unless the university wanted to continue using them," Hogan said. Hogan emphasized that the PBMR technology was in no way questioned. (...) She also pointed out that South Africa was recognized as a pioneer in the PBMR, a remarkable achievement for a developing country and one which one could justifiably be proud of , she added "(atw). So in summary: There was nothing except very high expenses! A poor "developing country" can be very proud of that!

Planned Castor transport from Jülich to Ahaus: Crisscrossing is no longer possible!

The transport of 152 Castor casks from THTR-Jülich to Ahaus will probably be approved in the second half of 2011. A demo will soon take place against this: January 30, 2011, 14 pm: demo from Rurtalbahnhof "Forschungszentrum" Jülich. Further information on the new homepage: www.westcastor.de

Dear Readers!

If an article such as "Expensive dismantling of 12 research reactors!" appears in THTR circular no. 133, the likelihood that its content will be picked up by various major newspapers is not small. In this case from Tagesspiegel (Berlin), Junge Welt, Neues Deutschland, Fuge News and of course the grassroots revolution. When reports about cancer cases near the Asse surfaced in the media at the end of November 2010, the WDR reacted quickly and on November 26th, with me as the interview partner, made a small contribution on similar problems at the THTR. Before that, the WDR radio had reported on the THTR on September 11, 6 in the six-part series "Burst nightmares" about expensive nuclear power plants that had hardly supplied any electricity:

http://www.wdr5.de/sendungen/morgenecho/serienuebersicht/geplatzte-alp-traeume.html

***

Top

***

***

Top

***