Achim Klüppelberg
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achimklueppelberg.bsky.social
Achim Klüppelberg
@achimklueppelberg.bsky.social
Eventmanager, Researcher, Author.

PhD, defended at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, about "The Nuclear Waters of the Soviet Union".

achimklueppelberg.com
Pinned
The Hidden History of Soviet Nuclear Plans at Lake Võrtsjärv in Estonia

1967 or possibly 1972, a convoy of black Volgas navigated the winding south-Estonian roads toward Lake Võrtsjärv.1 Whether in summer, collecting dust and mosquitoes, or in autumn or spring, accumulating heavy dirt on the…
The Hidden History of Soviet Nuclear Plans at Lake Võrtsjärv in Estonia
1967 or possibly 1972, a convoy of black Volgas navigated the winding south-Estonian roads toward Lake Võrtsjärv.1 Whether in summer, collecting dust and mosquitoes, or in autumn or spring, accumulating heavy dirt on the marshy terrain, the leather-fitted cars carried three esteemed men from the Soviet Estonian Academy of Sciences – geologist Anto Raukas, biologist Harald Haberman and energy engineer Ilmar Öpik. Accompanying them were four to six ‘Moscow people’ with plans to establish a nuclear power plant (hereafter NPP) at the picturesque site. Perhaps, as they reached the elevated banks of Vehendi, where reddish pines reached for the blue sky, the men in ominous KGB attire exchanged nods, finding the location suitable for their cutting-edge technology. Maybe, hearing the rustling reeds, they concurred with the Estonian scientists that a new 4000 MWe power plant could not be built on this shallow lake without raising temperatures to harmful levels.
achimklueppelberg.com
Doom your optimism!

It is Summer 2025 and I am working at my standing desk in a sunny southside apartment in southern Germany. It is one of the hottest days this year. There are many hottest days these days all around Europe. In fact, there are so many hottest days all over the place that many…
Doom your optimism!
It is Summer 2025 and I am working at my standing desk in a sunny southside apartment in southern Germany. It is one of the hottest days this year. There are many hottest days these days all around Europe. In fact, there are so many hottest days all over the place that many people start worrying about their own resilience to climate change, as well as that of their communities, families, and loved ones.
achimklueppelberg.com
November 1, 2025 at 8:07 PM
NTM Article Prize 2025 Ceremony in Dresden

On 25 September, I was invited for this year's GWMT annual meeting to Dresden, Germany. Within the halls of the German Hygiene Museum in Saxonia's capitals I received the NTM Article Prize for Young Authors. My article "Creating Chernobyl. Technocratic…
NTM Article Prize 2025 Ceremony in Dresden
On 25 September, I was invited for this year's GWMT annual meeting to Dresden, Germany. Within the halls of the German Hygiene Museum in Saxonia's capitals I received the NTM Article Prize for Young Authors. My article "Creating Chernobyl. Technocratic Culture and Everyday Life in Nuclear Ukraine, 1970-1982" convinced the board. Naturally, I am very grateful and happy for this award.
achimklueppelberg.com
October 27, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
WHAT WAS THAT? Von Gießen bis Chicago, von Oma bis Azubi, mehr als 3200 Leute waren gestern bei uns im Mega Zoom dabei, weil sie kein Bock haben auf AfD-Jugend! 🔥

Oder hilf uns mit einer Spende: widersetzen.com/spenden

#Alerta #afdverbot #wirsindmehr #widersetzen
October 26, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
📣 Die neue Ausgabe 33:3 der #NTM ist jetzt online. Mit Beiträgen über Kraniologie, Psychotechnik, Psychiatrie, Kindheiten und dem mit dem NTM-Artikelpreis 2025 prämierten Beitrag "Creating Chernobyl" von @achimklueppelberg.bsky.social.
link.springer.com/journal/48/v...
#histsci #histtech #histmed
NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin
NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin is an international journal for history of science, technology, and medicine across all ...
link.springer.com
October 21, 2025 at 8:03 AM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
We are alarmed by reports that Germany is on the verge of a catastrophic about-face, reversing its longstanding and principled opposition to the EU’s Chat Control proposal which, if passed, could spell the end of the right to privacy in Europe. signal.org/blog/pdfs/ge...
signal.org
October 3, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
job alert:

My department is now running a search to fill a newly inaugurated endowed chair in the History of Technology. Please consider applying/share widely. I'm not on the committee, but happy to answer questions or connect you with those who are.

Details here: recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09897
September 26, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
Nach drei anregenden Tagen ist die Jahrestagung #gwmt2025 schon wieder vorbei.
Wir danken dem lokalen Organisationsteam für die tolle Vorbereitung!
Allen Teilnehmenden eine gute und sichere Heimreise und wir sehen uns 2026 in Prag!
September 26, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
Ukrainska soldater som tas till fånga av Ryssland utsätts regelmässigt & i stor skala för kränkningar enligt internationell humanitär rätt & mänskliga rättigheter. Det visar ny internationell expertrapport från OSCE av bl a juridikprofessor @klamberg.bsky.social #Ukraina www.su.se/juridiska-in...
Ny rapport om hur Ryssland behandlar ukrainska krigsfångar - Juridiska institutionen
Ukrainska soldater som tas till fånga av Ryssland utsätts regelmässigt och i stor skala för kränkningar enligt internationell humanitär rätt. Det visar en ny internationell expertrapport av bland andr...
www.su.se
September 26, 2025 at 5:05 AM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
Zweitnutzung für Lärmschutzwand 🌞⚡️
Dass da noch nicht alle drauf gekommen sind 💡😅
Und es gibt natürlich lokale Wertschöpfung und Ausschüttungen 💰
#Bürgerenergie #Genossenschaft
500 Meter lange PV-Anlage als Gemeinschaftsprojekt der Bürger
www.swr.de/swraktuell/b...
Strom durch 500 Meter lange PV-Anlage: Wenn die Menschen vor Ort die Energie-Wende angehen
Viele Jahre stand die Lärmschutzwand an der B 33 bei Offenburg-Elgersweier einfach nur so da. Dann hatten Bürger die Idee, dort eine Photovoltaikanlage zu montieren.
www.swr.de
September 26, 2025 at 4:39 AM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
Me and Katja celebrated joint energy books over fika in Uppsala. She knew peat was important before the big peat-wave took place. A must read!
📣 It's publication day! 🔥Burning Swamps🔥 is out with @universitypress.cambridge.org ! My book tells the forgotten history of peat in the context of Russia’s industrialization & electrification and points to the lingering presence of past extraction 1/5

#envhist #energysky
September 25, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
⚡️ 'Next time, we may not be so lucky' — IAEA reports drone explosion near South Ukraine nuclear plant.

According to the IAEA team stationed at the facility, 22 drones were observed in the area between late Sept. 24 and the early hours of Sept. 25.
'Next time, we may not be so lucky' — IAEA reports drone explosion near South Ukraine nuclear plant
According to the IAEA team stationed at the facility, 22 drones were observed in the area between late Sept. 24 and the early hours of Sept. 25.
kyivindependent.com
September 26, 2025 at 6:15 AM
It is an honour to just having received the #NTM Article Prize at the @gwmt.bsky.social Annual Meeting in Dresden. Thank you!

PS: Go read the article, it is awesome!

#techhist #envhist #Chernobyl
🎉 Erstmals seit 2021 vergibt #NTM wieder einen Artikelpreis. Herzlichen Glückwunsch an Achim Klüppelberg für den Artikel "Creating Chernobyl. Technocratic Culture and Everyday Life in Nuclear Ukraine, 1970–1982"! ☢️
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Creating Chernobyl. - NTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin
Starting in 1970, this article studies how Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was built. It follows the station’s operational history until 1982. During that year, reactor block one suffered a torn reactor channel, four years prior to the well-known catastrophe of 1986. It uncovers the genesis of these accidents by analyzing everyday history at the construction site. Construction relied on long established tools and processes, tried out at large-scale and mostly non-nuclear development areas. Masons, carpenters, and welders dealt with planned quotas and deadlines, material and personnel shortages, as well as a lack of quality management. The tools they used to build this nuclear giant were rather a shock of the old (Edgerton) than futuristic.It uncovers circumstances, non-alignments, and decisions that amounted to a working environment characterized by a technocratic culture. This culture overemphasized the fulfillment of plans and quotas to the detriment of safety as should have been warranted by the nature of a nuclear reactor as specified in plans and regulations. By following the plant’s construction in its everyday struggles, this article shows characteristics of the working culture that evolved on-site and led to the accident of 1982. This innovative approach aids understanding of why and how the catastrophe of 1986 came about—beyond the two standard reasons established in the literature, namely a faulty reactor design and mistakes made by the operators.
link.springer.com
September 25, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
Das Schwerpunkheft zu Arbeiter*innenkulturen ist erschienen. Mit Janik und Minas durfte ich den Schwerpunkt betreuen und am Editorial mitschreiben. Viel Spaß beim Lesen!
Unsere neue Ausgabe ist erschienen! Unser Schwerpunkt liegt dieses Mal auf Arbeiter*innenkulturen. Mit Beiträgen u.a. zum Alltagsleben von tschechischen, italienischen und griechischen Arbeiter*innen vom 19. Jahrhundert bis in die 1970er Jahre. Zum Inhalt mit allen genauen Beiträgen: is.gd/c12C4y
September 24, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
Noyan Dinçkal eröffnet die diesjährige Jahrestagung der GWMT. Herzlichen Dank an das lokale Organisationsteam: Gisela Hürlimann, Florian Bruns und Dorit Brixius! #gwmt2025
September 24, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
„Der Dnipro wurde zu einem gigantischen Labor für die Verwirklichung der sowjetischen Moderne.“
In seinem Beitrag für @bpb_de zeigt Klaus Gestwa wie Technik, Gewalt und Umweltzerstörung am Dnipro bis heute die Ukraine prägen.
🔗 bpb.de – Die sowjetische Eroberung des Dnipro
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung | Demokratie stärken, Zivilgesellschaft fördern | bpb.de
Die Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung unterstützt Bürgerinnen und Bürger dabei, sich mit Politik zu befassen.
bpb.de
September 17, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
45 years ago today at about 3:00 AM, the highly-volatile liquid fuel of a nuclear-armed Titan II ICBM exploded inside underground launch complex 374-7, 3.3 miles north-northeast of Damascus, Arkansas, and approximately 50 miles north of the capital of Little Rock, destroying the missile and silo.
September 19, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
"Scientists have tested whether individuals diagnosed with psychopathy truly fit the 'boogeyman' image that is part & parcel of the psychopathy diagnosis. The findings are striking: they don’t."

Rasmus Rosenberg Larsen on his book "Psychopathy Unmasked": www.rorotoko.com/11/20250915-...
September 21, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
Happy to share this new Open Access paper, published within the realm of the REFRESH project on the complex problems of ecological ideas beyond Western narratives.
www.sciencedirect.com/.../pii/S030...
September 20, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
A disturbing aspect of the ecological emergencies created by human action, interlocked with the Global Climate Emergency: Only a third of world’s river basins experienced normal conditions in 2024 www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Only a third of world’s river basins experienced normal conditions in 2024
Increasingly erratic water cycle is creating food scarcity, rising prices, conflict and migration, says UN agency
www.theguardian.com
September 20, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
Trump’s #DOE to go in a “different direction” in management of #Hanford radioactive waste.

"DOE fires top Trump official overseeing Hanford cleanup"

#EnvHum #NukeSky #nuclear #NuclearPower

www.eenews.net/articles/doe...
DOE fires top Trump official overseeing Hanford cleanup
Roger Jarrell, a lawyer who served during Trump’s first term, was fired Monday.
www.eenews.net
September 14, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
In the 1990s, people in the Indonesian Cabinet used to call the president SGS, for “Super Genius Soeharto”
Incredible clip of tech CEOs fawning over Donald Trump. Someone store this clip in the underground archive vault
September 7, 2025 at 11:38 AM
The Hidden History of Soviet Nuclear Plans at Lake Võrtsjärv in Estonia

1967 or possibly 1972, a convoy of black Volgas navigated the winding south-Estonian roads toward Lake Võrtsjärv.1 Whether in summer, collecting dust and mosquitoes, or in autumn or spring, accumulating heavy dirt on the…
The Hidden History of Soviet Nuclear Plans at Lake Võrtsjärv in Estonia
1967 or possibly 1972, a convoy of black Volgas navigated the winding south-Estonian roads toward Lake Võrtsjärv.1 Whether in summer, collecting dust and mosquitoes, or in autumn or spring, accumulating heavy dirt on the marshy terrain, the leather-fitted cars carried three esteemed men from the Soviet Estonian Academy of Sciences – geologist Anto Raukas, biologist Harald Haberman and energy engineer Ilmar Öpik. Accompanying them were four to six ‘Moscow people’ with plans to establish a nuclear power plant (hereafter NPP) at the picturesque site. Perhaps, as they reached the elevated banks of Vehendi, where reddish pines reached for the blue sky, the men in ominous KGB attire exchanged nods, finding the location suitable for their cutting-edge technology. Maybe, hearing the rustling reeds, they concurred with the Estonian scientists that a new 4000 MWe power plant could not be built on this shallow lake without raising temperatures to harmful levels.
achimklueppelberg.com
September 6, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
“Treasury criticises ‘unachievable’ plan for underground nuclear waste dump in Cumbria”

#UK #Cumbria #nuclear #NuclearPower

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Treasury criticises ‘unachievable’ plan for underground nuclear waste dump in Cumbria
Assessment suggests cost of project to store 700,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste could reach £54bn
www.theguardian.com
September 6, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
Global #solar PV increase surges by a third in 2025 - and much of this is down to decentralised power
open.substack.com/pub/davidtok...
Global solar PV increase surges by a third in 2025 - and much of this is down to decentralised power
Solar production made a giant surge in the first five months of 2025, up by over a third compared to the same period in 2024.
open.substack.com
September 6, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by Achim Klüppelberg
Industrial electrification faces significant hurdles: technology, knowledge, and economic barriers.

Addressing them is critical to make progress.

More in our paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
September 1, 2025 at 9:55 AM