March 26, 2014
THTR research in NRW continues!
Horst Blume
In the WDR television program "Markt" on March 17, 2014 it was revealed that the course for the further development of high-temperature reactors (HTRs) had again been set in the Jülich Research Center (FZJ) and at the RWTH Aachen.
The small research reactor in Jülich and the THTR 300 in Hamm-Uentrop had to be shut down in 1988 and 1989 after numerous breakdowns and incidents. Despite the “nuclear phase-out” and the reactor disaster in Fukushima and despite the devastating safety deficiencies of this reactor line, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the federal government have spent many millions of euros on its further development for decades (!). We have documented this in detail on an ongoing basis in the issues of the THTR circular (see note below).
Now the nuclear lobby in politics, science and energy companies has taken another step. The FZJ's supervisory board, in which the red-green state government of North Rhine-Westphalia is also represented with a seat and vote, approved at the end of 2013 that the fanatical pebble-bed reactor sponsor Prof. Hans-Josef Allelein (born 1952) could continue to work for five years until his retirement HTR reactor line may research! Accordingly, this atomic fan also appears boldly on the show: Nobody can do anything to me anymore!
The decade-long inability or unwillingness of the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia and the federal government to prevent research on Pleiter reactors is really unique! It is high time to examine the extent to which certain persons can be held liable for obviously violating applicable decisions and laws.
It is particularly noteworthy that in Jülich and Aachen capacities and financial resources are not invested in the safe "disposal" of the large amounts of radioactive HTR nuclear waste and in securing the radioactive reactor ruins, but in calculations and research for the construction of new HTRs in China , India or even in the EU.
Here we document the very interesting article about the contribution in the WDR show "Markt" from March 17th, 2014:
Atomic research: further development instead of disposal? Controversial research in Jülich
It should come in 2022: the nuclear phase-out. We also know that at Forschungszentrum Jülich. Here is a nuclear facility contaminated with beta rays. One of the questions that now arises is: what to do with the fuel assemblies? But apparently Jülich is also working on the further development of a controversial nuclear technology.
The experimental reactor in Jülich was a failure.
Research disaster: high-temperature reactor in Jülich
A test reactor was in operation for 20 years at Forschungszentrum Jülich, in which temperatures of over 1000 ° were generated using spherical fuel elements - the hope for safe nuclear energy. But the dream burst after numerous security deficiencies and incidents. In 1978, significant amounts of strontium 90 and tritium leaked from the reactor into the soil and groundwater. Both of these can cause leukemia, and strontium 90 can also cause bone cancer. In spite of this, the reactor continued to operate, at a temperature that was far too high. The final shutdown took place 26 years ago. After that, Jülich was for a long time "the nuclear facility in the world most heavily contaminated with beta rays such as strontium 90", the operator himself admitted in 2000.
Prof. Hans-Josef Allelein is institute director at the Research Center Jülich as well as at the Technical University of Aachen. Despite the incidents, he is impressed by the technology: "In Germany you will certainly not need a pebble bed reactor in the next 30 years. It will not be economical either. But, like with many technologies, the question is whether you take the time now and that further develops and then also explores the potential, "says the scientist.
Enormous dismantling costs
There are a lot of acute problems. What to do with the fuel assemblies? They are stored in 152 castors, stored in a lightweight building made of metal and sheet metal. The dismantling costs for the reactor are considerable, and there is no end in sight. According to information from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), a total of 2012 million euros in tax money has flowed into the dismantling since the shutdown, plus an additional 651 million euros in ongoing operating costs per month. Chemist and safety expert Rainer Moormann worked at the research center in Jülich for 1,3 years. In the meantime he has become a sharp critic: "The costs cannot be estimated at all at the moment. Because you don't know where the strontium is located and how widely it has spread there. And otherwise the reactor, the 35-ton container, must is now filled with concrete so that the radioactivity is bound, it has to be treated at some point in 2100 years or later, or it has to be disposed of or dismantled as a whole. That is a huge task. "
How can the nuclear waste from Jülich be disposed of? Significant disposal problems
The reactor is now being dismantled by the federally owned Energiewerke Nord - with major obstacles: Time and again there have been delays because, according to the BMBF, the "complexity of this work was underestimated in the original planning" and the "contamination of individual components" could not be assessed or is. The atomic legacy shines through: 300.000 spherical fuel elements with highly enriched uranium. The castor containers are above ground. The hall is an interim storage facility, currently without a permit. Rainer Moormann considers all of this to be a "total debacle". He criticizes Jülich for not addressing the many open questions and necessary preparatory work and measures for the disposal of the fuel elements.
Controversial advancement of pebble bed technology
Disposal research, however, is not Prof. Allelein's topic. Despite the nuclear phase-out, research and calculations are ongoing. We have papers with which Prof Allelein gave a lecture in 2013. Complicated calculations - understandable only for scientists. Obviously, it is about the further development of pebble bed technology. Allelein says: "We have the appropriate computer programs and we are developing them further, making them available to interested parties. We have global interest: The Chinese in particular are interested. They are currently building such a pebble bed reactor and they are also using our expertise. "
Despite the incidents, Prof. Hans-Josef Allelein is impressed by the pebble bed technology.
Most colleagues from the industry see this critically, including nuclear expert Michael Sailer from the Ökoinstitut in Darmstadt. "The pebble bed reactor is more complicated and expensive and has not yet proven that it is useful in practice. Most people who deal with nuclear technology see it that way. That is why there are practically no projects in the world in which the concept is pursued further will ", so the chemist.
Research with tax dollars
And yet tax money is flowing: the Federal Ministry of Economics has been donating a research budget to the chair at the TH Aachen for years. In 2013 that was 730.000 euros, and the Ministry of Research gave 390.000 euros on top - for security research. By the way, the so-called reactor safety research is funded nationwide with over 25 million euros. However, Michael Sailer and Rainer Moormann criticize the fact that this money could not only be used to carry out security research, but also to promote the further development of pebble bed technology.
A tiny experimental reactor, which in its lifetime delivered a maximum of 13 megawatts of electricity, has become a bottomless nuclear and financial bottomless pit. The disposal has not been clarified. The concrete is crumbling. And yet there are scientists who cannot let go.
Author: Petra Storch
The broadcast can be viewed here:
http://www1.wdr.de/fernsehen/ratgeber/markt/sendungen/atomforschung101.html
Notes: Research funding for the THTR to date - Documented in the THTR newsletters
THTR-Rundbrief No. 140: THTR-friends kiss each other further
THTR Newsletter No. 136: THTR Research Continues!
THTR-Rundbrief No. 133: CDU-Wirtschaftsvereinigung wants subsidies for bankruptcy technology!
THTR-Rundbrief No. 131: Excellent NRW nuclear power?
THTR-Rundbrief No. 124: News from "Atomausstieg": To RWTH Aachen
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Further to: Newspaper article 2014
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