May 27, 2011

After Fukushima - Why are thousands of people on the street in Germany?

On Saturday, May 28th, thousands of people will take to the streets in 21 German cities to keep the pressure on for an end to atomic power. Is there a reason why the Germans are so active, and over years? Here is a contribution to the discussion.

By Hannelore and Dr. Ignacio Campino
May 2011, Bonn, Germany

Following the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, a US anti-nuclear activist asked why thousands of Germans are on the street demonstrating against nuclear power plants. We have given this much thought and offer this analysis.

Considering German history, German citizens have had good reasons in the past to be reserved towards their government and authorities. The empire ended with the First World War and Hitler led Germany into the disaster of the Second World War. Probably these big disappointments during the first half of the 20th Century are still present and important for the mindset of German public opinion.

The reason for Germans’ very critical position on nuclear power could be - even if it is only in the subconscious - that nuclear fission was discovered 1938 in Germany by Lise Meitner (1878-1968) and Otto Hahn (1879-1968). Less than 10 years later, the USA had built the atomic bomb based on this finding. The pictures of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still present in Germans’ minds.

A central element of the political democratic development in the former Western Germany after the Second World War was freedom of expression and a free press. Several political parties were founded, so that many different views were possible. Political discussion was fueled by a free press. Compared with other countries, where the media are concentrated in a few hands, the German media are much more diverse. Besides private media, there are also federal and regional state-owned TV stations and broadcasting companies with a mission of information and education. These broadcasters are directed by the respective local governments with differing political orientations.

The discussion about nuclear power plants arrived in Europe in 1968 from the USA. A first citizen action group against nuclear power plants was founded in Paris. It was at the time of the student protests against the establishment. Shortly thereafter this development reached Germany and the first “Anti-Atomic Movement” was set up. The movement joined the anti-nuclear armament protest, which began 10 years before, which makes the German anti-nuclear movement almost 50 years old. It is one of the new social movements of the late 20th century and the most powerful civil rights movement in Germany.

Another aspect was NATO’s 1983 deployment of Pershing nuclear missiles to counter the SS20 missiles of the Eastern Bloc. The new atomic weapons raised fears, fueling an anti-nuclear movement against both reactors and weapons and triggering the biggest demonstrations ever seen in the Federal Republic of Germany.

It has been repeatedly pointed out that nuclear technology is not safe. Human errors, technical defects, unforeseen natural events, even acts of terrorism can cause a meltdown. The founding of the Green Party in 1980 by several activists from different political backgrounds, including the US/German activist Petra Kelly, and its electoral success goes back to its members’ and voters’ roots in the anti-nuclear movement. With the founding of the Green Party, environmental awareness became a permanent part of German society.

An important consequence of the movement and the formation of the Green Party was the public discussion about technical issues related to nuclear power plants and their risks, so that the German citizens were well-informed about the hazards of radioactivity. In addition, German legislation requires public hearings near large projects, including atomic plants. This is a very visible stage for discussions between authorities, power companies and activists and a challenge for the activists to bring good and credible arguments.

Another reason for the permanent discussion is the success of the movement. Projects were stopped because of activists’ strong arguments and protests. The most prominent examples of resistance included that against the construction of the nuclear power plant at Brokdorf in 1976, the "fast breeder” in Kalkar 1977, the construction of the nuclear power plant Grohnde and against the construction of the reprocessing plant Wackersdorf in 1985. In 1977, Robert Jungk created the term "atomic state" in his book of the same name. While at Brokdorf the atomic power plant was finally built (1986) after violent clashes between thousands of demonstrators and the police, the construction of the recycling plant in Wackersdorf was no longer politically possible following major demonstrations with more than 100,000 participants. The "fast breeder” in Kalkar was built, but never operated. The serious nuclear plant accident at Three Mile Island in 1979 and the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 contributed decisively to public acceptance of the movement. The anti-atomic activists proved that they could argue with science against science. They had their own physicists, chemists and geneticists. Since then they could never again be accused of romantic irrationalism.

No other incident in the late 20th Century alarmed as many people in Germany as the explosion at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl. The authorities were confronted with very critical, well informed citizens, so that attempts to manipulate data and information were discovered. In addition, each of the 16 Federal States in Germany has its own environmental authorities and governments led by different political parties with different political positions about the risks from radioactivity. In countries like France the centralized information management around the Chernobyl accident was a trap for French citizens, as the authorities systematically manipulated information. With the argument of wanting to avoid panic, they let people believe that the radiation stopped at the border of France!

In Germany, information was also manipulated, but probably not as much as in France. Still the suspicion was ever-present. Today, under the impact of Fukushima, some German politicians who had responsibility at the time of Chernobyl have admitted that information and data were manipulated. Yet despite a cover-up culture in nuclear facilities (falsified inspection protocols, secret accidents) the information about irregularities gets out to the public, perhaps more often than in other countries. Thus the very critical position of German activists has been belatedly confirmed.

Because of historical experiences, Germans do not have blind faith in progress. In Germany there was, in comparison to other European countries and the USA, always a different and more thoughtful attitude towards new technologies. In comparison to other countries, in Germany risks are discussed much more openly. Interested parties try to explain this as hostility to technology. But this is not true. The best proof is that Germany is one of the technology leaders in the world and an export champion and much better than France, with its more than 70% of electricity from nuclear power plants.

It should be said that the discussion about nuclear power is not a taboo among friends or in the family. The exchange of opinions is part of the normal social contacts. Finally, the level of organization among German citizens is very high in comparison to other countries. Germany has more associations and clubs for singing, shooting, card games, chess, all kind of sports, dancing, etc. than any other country in the world. This means that Germans citizens are well organized, a pre-condition for developing one’s own opinions and also for taking to the streets in support of their interests.

The strongest reason today that people are demonstrating is probably their opposition to the clear, close and supportive relationships between some political parties and nuclear power companies. A crucial demand of the Green Party in the negotiations with the Social Democratic Party for the government coalition in 2000 was to phase out atomic energy. The new Atomic Energy Act of 2002 determined for each of the 19 nuclear power plants a specific operating lifetime. The last plant should be closed in 2021. The next government coalition, between the conservative Christian Democrat Party and the Social Democratic Party, confirmed this agreement. But the current coalition between the Christian Democrats and the Liberal Party decided in 2009 to repeal the phase-out agreement and prolong the operating lifetimes of the reactors: from an additional 8 years for each of the older plants and 14 years for the newer ones. For the anti-nuclear movement and important sections of the German public this was a provocation. The anti-nuclear movement regrouped and expanded, and coordinated by several activist internet organizations, demonstrated regularly against the operating extension – and nuclear energy per se. However the extensions sought by the government coalition were finally passed by Parliament in October 2010. Just a few months later, events at Fukushima showed that the arguments against atomic energy were serious and the residual risks not theoretical. Days after Fukushima incident Chancellor Merkel announced a 3 months moratorium for the operating extension and closed the 7 oldest reactors, pending a rapid safety review.

This development may mean that Germans are taking a completely new approach to electrical energy production. The majority does not accept anymore the ‘patching up’ or technological up-grading of atomic plants as a kind of learning from catastrophes. They want to embark on a new path without this technology. Germany is today probably the first living laboratory in the world for a low carbon society.