International Law

Fukushima and Germany

By Karl-Friedrich Lenz

This post on a German energy law blog on my blogroll discusses the technical aspects of how Germany might turn off the nuclear plants. The authors say that legislation is necessary. And they are right.

I object however to their idea that the Fukushima accident should require such a step.

When was the last 9.0 earthquake in Germany? When was the last tsunami affecting any German nuclear plant site?

The strongest earthquake recorded ever in Germany was at 6.4 on the Richter scale, on 18 February 1756, at about 8 AM. That is a quite different level compared to the recent earthquake here.

I am not aware that Germany ever had any  tsunami, which is responsible for just about all of the problems at Fukushima.

And even with the double shock of earthquake and tsunami and a large amount of human error in dealing with the shutdown process, there is still no large-scale permanent radiation damage from the Fukushima accident, and not much chance for that to happen even under worst-case scenarios wildly unlikely now.

Full post as published by Lenz Blog on March 28, 2011 (boomark / email).