Letter to the editor bnn, top-out ceremony at kit campus may 21,

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dear ladies and gentlemen, i would like to ask you to print my letter to the editor on:
bnn, edition hardt, top-out ceremony at kit campus nord symbol for a functioning europe, 21. may 2019

regarding the statement made by mr. andré baumann (greens), state secretary in the baden-württemberg ministry of the environment, or his commitment to the jrc: “we reject application-oriented research. and therefore explicitly development work for and on new reactors,” there is probably still an information problem, because very specific research is actually taking place on and for new nuclear reactors and their fuels.

this includes the liquid salt reactor of the eu project samofar, whose explosiveness and danger is generally little known and in which jrc and kit are also involved.
in general, a large part of the work declared as 'security research' actually enables development research into high-risk nuclear technologies.

samofar is intended to research nuclear reactors powered by thorium, which belong to the future 'fourth generation'. their atomic fuel is dissolved in liquid salt and they have an integrated reprocessing system. during ongoing operation of this type of reactor, uranium 233, which is suitable for nuclear weapons, must be removed from the liquid fuel in an intermediate step so that the chain reaction can be maintained. 150 kg of fissile material is produced every year, which is suitable for 7 gun-type atomic bombs (u003d 1st atomic bomb on hirsoshima).

how can it be that in germany, a country that has phased out nuclear power, research is being carried out into technologies that enable nuclear weapons of mass destruction? it is impossible to imagine what would happen if this reactor concept fell into the hands of unstable states or terrorists. the development of small modular thorium reactors (smr: small modular reactor), which are to be built in large numbers and sold worldwide, increases this danger.

the samofar project should under no circumstances be extended beyond the expiry date of the end of july 2019; kit and jrc karlsruhe (formerly itu, institute for transuranics) must cease their participation in it.

i would be very happy about a print in the bnn.

thank you in advance

with kind regards

wolfgang oberacker