The reactor bankruptcy - THTR 300 The THTR Circular
Studies on THTR and much more. The THTR breakdown list
The HTR research The THTR incident in the 'Spiegel'

The THTR Circulars from 2014

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THTR Circular No. 144, Nov. 2014:


Content:

THTR in Indonesia? Reactor construction planned with Japanese help

High-temperature reactor construction in China is making progress. Ball fuel element factory completed

South Africa sees nuclear power through pink (tom) red glasses again! Eight nuclear power plants planned with Russian help

Massive protests against Jülich Castor transports announced!

South Carolina is not a THTR nuclear waste disposal site. Speech by Thomas Clements from the USA

BI environmental protection Hamm will soon be 40 years old. Renewable energy and coal power in Hamm

 


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.... and they keep trying:

THTR in Indonesia?

THTR Newsletter No. 144 - November 2014The "Nuklearforum", the homepage of the Swiss nuclear industry, announced on August 21, 2014 that Japan and Indonesia had signed an agreement for the future construction of high-temperature reactors (HTR) (1.).
Of all things, Japan, which was shaken by the Fukushima catastrophe, is reviving an endeavor of Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) and the nuclear industry in Indonesia that has been pursued for decades.

The article did not mention that there was - or even still exists - a collaboration between the Indonesian National Atomic Energy Agency (BATAN) on the one hand and Forschungszentrum Jülich and the North Rhine-Westphalia government on the other. Because the Indonesian BATAN and the Japanese Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) are still listed on the list of cooperation partners of FZ Jülich (2.). - And this despite the fact that the FZJ has officially renounced all THTR research ambitions for a few months now.

Construction of the HTR test reactor and power reactor are planned

BATAN and JAEA first want to build a gas-cooled high-temperature reactor (HTGR) demonstration system with an electronic output of 3 - 10 MW, which supposedly could go into operation as early as 2020. In addition to conventional light water reactors, the commissioning of which is planned from 2024, small 100 MW HTGR power reactors are also to be built "suitable" for each of the many Indonesian islands.

The Swiss “Nuclear Forum” proudly announces further plans: “With the recently extended agreement, the JAEA is now allowing Batan to share in its findings from the operation of its high-temperature test reactor HTTR (High Temperature Engineering Test Reactor). According to the JAEA, there is also the possibility that the two countries will work together with HTGR on the development of hydrogen production. According to their own statements, the Japanese plan to supplement their HTTR with a hydrogen production plant ”.

Since the hydrogen technology in connection with nuclear power is by no means mature and highly controversial (3.), we are only hearing dreams of the future here. And in this area, too, the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the FRG have many thanks to their research funding in the FZJ and Research Center Karlsruhe Millions of euros sacrificed to a more than questionable experiment.

The past comes back to life!

The extent to which the decades of nuclear research and funding for the THTR in North Rhine-Westphalia still "have an impact" is clearly shown by the example of Indonesia:
Since the early 70s, there has been an interest in the construction of nuclear power plants in the newly industrialized country, which is being courted by the nuclear industry. In 1987 a nuclear research reactor (MPR-30) was put into operation in cooperation with Germany. When, a few months after the disaster in Chernobyl and the incident in THTR-Hamm in 1986, the social democratic NRW economics minister Reimut Jochimsen visited this reactor in Indonesia, he recommended the construction of the German HTR technology to the military dictatorship there under Suharto (4.).

The Siemens subsidiary Interatom, which had helped develop the THTR, had hopes for that Nuclear deal with Indonesia. On July 9, 7 Indonesia's Minister of State for Research and Technology, Professor Habibie, visited the THTR in Hamm-Uentrop and asked Klaus Knizia (VEW) to personally explain his alleged advantages. In the following period, ABB and Siemens repeatedly emphasized their hope of an HTR export to Indonesia (5.). At the conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna in 1991, an Indonesian energy expert expressed clear interest in his country. Of course, a special paper on the use of nuclear power plants in Indonesia was also published in FZJ 1992.

In 1997, the energy forecast ("Markal Study"), written with German support, described the use of atomic energy in Indonesia as "essential". In 2004, the international office of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) named the Indonesian Nuclear Research Authority (BATAN) as an important partner for bilateral cooperation and referred to an already developed network of German and Indonesian research institutions. In the meantime, more than 20.000 Indonesian students have been trained in Germany as part of the scientific and technical cooperation.

In 2002 and 2003, the Geesthacht Research Center (GKSS), which had got into talk due to nuclear accidents and a high rate of leukemia in the area, carried out a scientific project in Jakarta (Indonesia). Günter Lohnert, then head of the "HTR Safety Analysis" department at Siemens / Interatom and later a professor at the University of Stuttgart ("Competence Center for Nuclear Energy"), gave numerous guest lectures in Indonesia.

In 2000, Dr. Hans-Joachim Klar from the Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, which cooperates intensively with the FZJ, has been appointed a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) by the Indonesian National Atomic Energy Agency (BATAN). Klar has already held various seminars and workshops in Indonesia. "The appointment honors his services in various scientific collaborations with Indonesia" and "is based on a decree of the Indonesian government that regulates the activities of the nuclear energy supply (...)", wrote the RWTH Aachen in March / April 2000 in a press release.

Be it volcanoes, earthquakes or the devastating Islamist terrorist attack on Bali on October 12, 10, which was widely noticed worldwide - in Indonesia there are many additional dangers to the use of atomic energy that go beyond "normal operation".

Whether FZ Jülich is still cooperating with the nuclear institutes in Indonesia and Japan and what this cooperation might look like is definitely worth asking in view of the more recent developments.

Notes:

1. http://www.nuklearforum.ch/de/aktuell/e-bulletin/htgr-forschung-abkommen- between-japan-und-indonesien

2. http://www.fz-juelich.de/iek/iek-6/DE/ueberuns/kooperationen/forschungsinstitute.html

3. "Hydrogen for nuclear dreams" http://www.machtvonunten.de/atomkraft-und-oekologie/215-wasserstoff-fuer-nukleare-traeume.html

4. See: "Ruhrnachrichten" of February 20, 2

5. See: “Der Spiegel, No. 2/1989

 

Everything on the subject Indonesia in
www. Reaktorpleite.de

 

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The high temperature reactor in China in 2014

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The construction of the high-temperature reactor (HTR) on the Shandong peninsula in China is making progress, according to the latest reports. A small HTR test reactor has been in operation near Beijing since 2000. From December 2012 a 210 MW "High Temperature Reactor - Pebble Module" (HTR-PM) will be built on the Shandong peninsula near the former German colonial base (1).

To manufacture the spherical fuel elements required for this type of reactor, construction of a fuel element factory began in February 2013 in Inner Mongolia near Baotou, about 700 kilometers northwest of Beijing. In this mining area for rare earths, the most basic ecological minimum standards are disregarded and parts of the population are resettled (2).

In March 2014, the World Nuclear News (WNN) announced that the cooperation between the Chinese Nuclear Engineering and Construction Corporation (CNECC) and Tsinghua University, which has been taking place for a decade, is to be intensified and marketing for the HTR is to be intensified (3).

In August 2014, WNN announced that the Shanghai Electric subsidiary “Shanghai Blower Works” had started manufacturing a prototype for the gas cooling system for the HTR-PM in Shidaowan in 2010. Tsinghua University tested this system for one hundred hours on July 16, 2014 at full power and at a temperature of 250 degrees. The four-ton rotor is said to work wear-free. The entire reactor is expected to be operational in 2017 (4). According to the whistleblower Rainer Moormann, this Chinese HTR-PM is an extremely cheap variant: It has no pressure-retaining safety container and no castors are used for nuclear waste disposal, only thin-walled barrels. A procedure that has not been enforceable in the FRG since 1990.

Ball fuel element factory completed with Jülich help

The construction of the production plant for spherical fuel elements in Inner Mongolia, which began in February 2013, was completed in September 2014 (5). The annual production capacity will be 300.000 fuel element balls. The plant is expected to go into operation in August 2015.

Even before the construction of this large-scale plant, there was a test production line of 100.000 spherical fuel elements per year, which was carried out by the Institute for Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET) at Tsinghua University. INET has been working on this special fuel technology for 30 years. Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) is of course still a member of INET (6) and has been involved in the transfer of know-how for decades. Even today, INET is on the list of FZJ cooperation partners, although the FZJ has stated that the HTR research has ended.

Research on the HTR line continues

The collaboration in research on Generation IV reactors was intensified again in September 2014. The US “Next Generation Nuclear Plant” (NGNP) Alliance and the European “Nuclear KWK Industrial Initiative” (NC2I) have also agreed to work together on the development and introduction of HTGRs through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) (7).

NC2I is a working group within the "Sustainable Nuclear Energy Technology Platform" (SNETP). Everyone who is of high standing in Europe's nuclear community is gathered there - from industry to their research institutions. In 2013, FZ Jülich appeared as a supporter of nuclear propaganda events within this interest group (8) and of course your satellite RWTH Aachen as a registered member should not be missing either (9).

And although the FRG has allegedly said goodbye to the HTR line long ago and even the Jülich Research Center grudgingly said goodbye to its favorite hobby horse under public pressure, strangely enough new research results are constantly being published on dozens of pages in the specialist journal "Atomwirtschaft" ( atw) published for HTR (10):

- "Experimentally based assessment of accident scenarios for high-temperature reactor fuel systems" (atw, November 2013).

- “Researchers clarify an important question about the pebble bed reactor” (atw, March 2014).

- “A method for evaluating the graphite structures of a VHTR” (atw, April 2014).

- "A reliability assessment methodology for the passive safety systems from VHTR" (atw, October 2014).

In a strange contrast to the activities mentioned above, there is the following announcement by the FZJ: “The research center will carefully document the HTR-related findings that have been gained in the past and finish the work on them in an orderly manner. This corresponds to the principles of good scientific practice "(11). "Document findings"? - Of course you can also call it that.

Notes

1. "Nuclear Premiere": http://www.machtvonunten.de/atomkraft-und-oekologie/180-nukleare-premiere.html

2. THTR circular no.141: http://www.reaktorpleite.de/nr-141-juli-2013.html

3. http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN-Working-together-for-high-temperature-reactors-2103147.html

4. http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN-Helium-fan-produced-for-Chinese-HTR-PM-1908144.html

5. http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/ENF-HTGR-fuel-production-equipment-in-place-1909144.html (no longer exists)

6. http://www.fz-juelich.de/iek/iek-6/DE/ueberuns/kooperationen/forschungsinstitute.html

7. http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN-Working-together-for-high-temperature-reactors-2103147.html

8. http://www.snetp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/nc2i.pdf

9. http://www.snetp.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/snetp-members_may2014.pdf

10. http://www.kernenergie.de/kernenergie/service/fachzeitschrift-atw/hefte-themen/2014/index.php

11. http://www.fz-juelich.de/SharedDocs/Meldungen/PORTAL/DE/2014/14-05-14aufsichtsrat-sicherheitsforschung.html

 

Everything on the subject China in
www. Reaktorpleite.de

 

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South Africa sees nuclear power through pink (tom) red glasses again!

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It has only been four years since the nuclear dreams in South Africa were shattered. For several decades, the semi-public utility company Eskom and the South African government tried to build a Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR). The preparations made with the help of Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) and the German nuclear industry to build this high-temperature reactor (HTR) cost South Africa at least one billion euros and failed miserably (1)!

Just a few years ago, the grandiose plans provided that 24 modules of this Generation IV reactors should be built in South Africa and become an export hit. Despite the great poverty of large parts of the population and the best conditions for the expansion of renewable energy sources, the government relied on nuclear energy and wasted a lot of money on it senselessly. In 2010, those involved meekly admitted: "The severity of the financial crisis has forced the government to rethink its spending policy and set new priorities" (2).

In September 2014 it became clear that the South African government had by no means become wise because of damage. On the sidelines of the conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), representatives of the Russian state corporation Rosatom and the South African energy minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson signed an intergovernmental agreement on a strategic partnership and industrial cooperation in the field of nuclear energy.
“The agreement lays the foundation for the procurement and construction of up to eight Russian-style nuclear power plant units with a total installed output of up to 9600 MW. (...) In addition to the joint construction of nuclear power plants, the agreement includes extensive cooperation in other nuclear areas. These include the construction of a multi-purpose research reactor with Russian technology, support in the development of the South African nuclear infrastructure and the training of South African specialists at Russian universities. According to Joemat-Pettersson, South Africa is more interested today than ever before in a massive expansion of nuclear energy - an important driver of national economic growth "(3).

According to Spiegel information, the first nuclear power plant should go into operation as early as 2023. If all planned nuclear power plants were completed by 2030, this would bring Rosatom up to 39 billion euros in profit (4).

With this contract, the old mistakes are exactly repeated and justified with the old lies: “With this, the government wants to contribute to the industrialization of the country, revive the local nuclear industry, create jobs and strengthen knowledge development and transfer. South Africa is striving to strengthen its position as an exporting country for nuclear services and components "(5).

In addition to the cooperation with Rosatom, South Africa signed a cooperation agreement for the development of nuclear power with France on October 14, 2014. “It encompasses both technical and scientific cooperation as well as future industrial partnerships. The agreement also offers the opportunity to work together in areas such as power generation, the disposal of spent fuel elements and nuclear safety "(6).

Notes:

1. http://www.machtvonunten.de/atomkraft-und-oekologie/197-der-thtr-in-suedafrika-uld-not-build.html

2. http://www.nuclearforum.ch/de/aktuell/e-bulletin/suedafrika-ende-fuer-pbmr-entwicklung

3. http://www.nuklearforum.ch/de/aktuell/e-bulletin/ausbau-der-suedafrikanische-kernenergie-mit-russischer-unterstuetzung

4. http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/atomreakreactors-russia-liefert-an-suedafrika-und-jordanien-a-993153.html

5. http://www.nuclearforum.ch/de/aktuell/e-bulletin/suedafrika-bestaeigt-neubauprogramm

6. http://www.nuklearforum.ch/de/aktuell/e-bulletin/nukleare-zollerarbeit- between-frankreich-und-suedafrika

 

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Massive protests against Jülich Castor transports announced!

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Environmental and anti-nuclear organizations from all over Germany have announced massive protests along the entire route in the event of Castor transports from the AVR interim storage facility in Jülich.

152 castors with highly radioactive waste from fuel assemblies are stored in Jülich. Obviously, Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) has not yet been able to obtain a legally secure permit for the interim storage facility or a transport permit for the castors. Whether this condition was brought about consciously by the FZJ or is due to incompetence can only be guessed.

The FZJ is currently trying, in cooperation with the state and the federal government, to move the nuclear waste to the USA for reprocessing. Legally, however, the export of nuclear waste is only permitted for research reactors. However, the AVR is an experimental reactor for commercial electricity generation (1967-1988). Thus, the export is illegal. In order to circumvent the current Atomic Energy Act, the audacious re-declaration of the AVR (Arbeitsgemeinschaft VersuchsReaktor) is to be carried out as a research reactor. The same applies to the 305 castors from the decommissioned pebble bed reactor Hamm-Uentrop, which are currently stored in Ahaus. According to a public announcement by the US Department of Energy, these should be sent to the USA at the same time - this is also illegal!

If the US plans fail, there is still a risk of the "West Castors" being relocated to the Ahaus interim storage facility. As early as 2013, these plans had to be abandoned due to protests. The warehouse in Ahaus is not much safer than the one in Jülich, only has a longer permit until 2036. The garbage must be conditioned for final storage at a later point in time. This is not possible in Ahaus, but it is possible in Jülich. Any planning must be based on avoiding nuclear transports and thus unnecessarily endangering the population.

The motto "Nothing in! Nothing out!" is consensus among the signatories. Any nuclear waste transport is generally rejected as long as there is no nationwide nuclear waste storage facility. Instead, the nuclear waste must remain in an earthquake-proof and approved interim storage facility at the Jülich site.

At a nationwide meeting of anti-nuclear and environmental organizations, it was decided to relocate the entire German nuclear power plant resistance to the transport routes in the case of the Castor transports. The focus will be on Jülich and the destination Ahaus (or Nordenham for US exports). But also on the possible transport routes, local initiatives will bring the entire range of resistance onto the streets - following the example of the successful campaigns in Gorleben.

Aachen action alliance against atomic energy
Action alliance Münsterland against nuclear facilities
Action alliance Stop Westcastor
Anti-nuclear group Osnabrück
Working group Schacht Konrad
Environment Working Group (AKU) Gronau
Attac Inde-Rur
BUND Landesverband NRW eV
Federal Association of Citizens' Initiatives Environmental Protection (BBU)
Mönchengladbach Radiation Train Alliance
Citizens' initiative "No nuclear waste in Ahaus"
Citizens' initiative for environmental protection, Hamm
Cattenom Non Merci eV
Nature and Environmental Protection Association Gronau (NUG)
SofA Münster (Immediate nuclear phase-out)
UmweltFAIRaendern.de
Wegberger Monday strollers against nuclear power

 

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South Carolina is not a disposal site for German nuclear waste!

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Since September 20, the American environmental activist Tom Clement has been a guest in the Federal Republic at the invitation of the German anti-nuclear movement.
In Dusseldorf, Jülich, Ahaus, Hamburg and Berlin, he reported on the conditions of the Savannah River Site (SRS) in the USA intended for the nuclear waste export plans of the FZJ (Forschungszentrum Jülich).
Here is Thomas Clements' speech to read:

First of all, many thanks to my German colleagues for organizing this tour and the warnings about the intended export of a German nuclear waste problem.

The efforts to illegally export nuclear waste from Jülich and Ahaus to the "Savannah River Site" (SRS) in South Carolina of the US Department of Energy's (DOE) are unacceptable because SRS is not a nuclear waste dump or a landfill for commercial waste operated nuclear reactors. Germany has to take care of a nuclear waste storage facility at home and not put the problems on us.

Savannah River Site is an extensive nuclear weapons manufacturing facility that was established in the 1950s and is over 800 square kilometers. Five SRS reactors produced 36 tons of weapons grade plutonium and radioactive tritium (H3). These activities yielded around 140 million liters of highly radioactive liquid wastewater, which is housed in 51 aging steel tanks and is currently being vitrified in large containers.

The disposal of nuclear waste in the SRS costs around US $ 1,5 billion per year and will last until at least 2040. We don't want to have to deal with more nuclear waste! The emptied tanks and reactor buildings were filled with concrete and remain a continuing testimony to the madness of the Cold War.

There are many reasons that we defy intent:

The public is strongly against efforts to turn SRS into a long-term nuclear waste disposal site on a commercial basis. The most important newspapers in the region have clearly spoken out in editorials against accepting German nuclear waste; the Federal Advisory Committee for SRS Rehabilitation has formally protested against the inclusion of nuclear waste from commercial facilities.
+ According to US legislation, highly radioactive nuclear waste and spent fuel elements must be housed in geological layers. SRS, on the other hand, lies on sandy coastal subsoil and is therefore unsuitable as a nuclear waste storage facility; All nuclear waste stored there must therefore be brought to a repository. However, such a repository does not exist in the USA and the plans to develop it have been stopped.
+ The DOE allows the reprocessing of the highly radioactive graphite waste, with which SRS has no experience, to produce nuclear waste for an interim storage facility, which in practice entails longer-term storage in the aforementioned leaky tanks. This will increase the redevelopment costs and delay the urgently needed redevelopment of the site.
+ There are atomic spheres that still contain highly enriched weapons-grade uranium from the USA, but that by no means applies to all. In particular, the atomic spheres from the AVR no longer pose a threat in terms of weapon capability. Up until 2011, both Germany and the USA assumed that from a proliferation perspective, there was nothing to prevent this waste from being disposed of locally.
+ SRS is currently developing a new recovery technique for the uranium from the graphite coating and this is where the actual risk of proliferation lies. Germany bears the costs of this development. The DOE has refused to prepare an adequate "Proliferation Hazard Analysis" that looks at the risks of the new reprocessing method.
+ The "H-Canyon" reprocessing facility in the SRS is a military facility and not under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), so there will be no independent documentation of the treatment of the nuclear waste or the separated uranium.
+ The Department of Energy's is not overseen by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which means there will be no public oversight and regulation of reprocessing and CASTOR shipments.
The import of nuclear waste from commercial plants into the US is unprecedented. Savannah River Site has in the past picked up nuclear waste from research reactors, including from Germany, but this program will end soon. Attempts to redefine the AVR and THTR as research reactors have no factual and legal basis and will fail.

Campaign "Stop nuclear waste exports to the USA!"

Since the summer of 2014, a major campaign against the export of nuclear waste to the USA has been carried out by “broadcast”. With a print run of 50.000 copies, the “broadcast” newsletter no. 25 deals with this topic. There are postcards, advertising imprints and of course an online petition, where over 7.500 people have registered so far:

https://www.ausgestrahlt.de/mitmachen/export-usa

 

Everything on the subject USA in
www. Reaktorpleite.de

 

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Dear readers, BI Environmental Protection Hamm will soon be 40 years old!

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This circular contains reports on the HTR covering four continents. Who would have thought that 39 years ago when we were preparing to found our citizens' initiative in a small working group of the German Peace Society (DFG / VK) in the autumn of 1975? Although “our” reactor on the doorstep had to be shut down, people from far away countries are now having problems with this reactor line. They depend on receiving information about our experience with the reactor. This is possible through the installed translation program on our homepage “Reaktorpleite” and is actively used.

In Hamm we can now spend a year thinking about how we want to celebrate our 18th anniversary as a citizens' initiative on February 2016, 40. To get in the mood, I have put a number of pictures about our actions on my homepage "Machtvonunten" in several articles about the history of BI:

+ "20 years after Chernoby: Forgetful into the future?" (Pictures about the tractor blockades 1986)

http://www.machtvonunten.de/lokales-hamm/217-20-jahre-nach-tschernoby-vergesslich-in-die-zukunft.html

+ "Tent camp against KKW" (pictures of the occupation at the VEW Info Center 1976)

http://www.machtvonunten.de/lokales-hamm/176-zeltlager-gegen-kkw.html

+ “No nuclear power plant with our money! Refusal of electricity money as a form of protest "

http://www.machtvonunten.de/lokales-hamm/205-kein-atomkraftwerk-mit-unserem-geld.html

Uli Mandel added the addition “Renewable energies for Hamm” to the homepage “Hamm gegen Atom” created in 2011 after the reactor disaster in Fukushima. Because: “But there is more to it. Not just about preventing nuclear power. It's not just against something, but FOR renewable energies. ”Completely new layout and thematically expanded. Check it out:

http://www.ernergie-hamm.de/

The breakdown series of Block D of the coal-fired power plant in Hamm-Uentrop promises to be an endless story. A commissioning date is no longer mentioned at all. It is expected that the costs will ultimately rise from 2 billion euros to 3 billion. The Hammer Stadtwerke have already set up provisions because they are always "asked" to pay. - All of this is a great starting point for a broad and committed criticism of the use of coal technology. In this respect, unfortunately, far too little is happening in Hamm.

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