Germans passive after Swedish near-meltdown
When more than 20 years ago a mighty pressure wave blew to smithereens the roof of Block 1 of the Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine and a radioactive cloud contaminated half of Europe, the West German anti-nuclear movement responded with massive protests. Now, after a near-meltdown in Sweden there's barely a whisper from the German anti-nuclear movement.
After the almost-meltdown in Sweden the German anti-nuclear movement remains passive.
By Reimar Paul
When more than 20 years ago a mighty pressure wave blew to smithereens the roof of Block 1 of the Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine and a radioactive cloud contaminated half of Europe, the West German anti-nuclear movement responded with massive protests.
For weeks many people took to the streets in dozens of cities. In Brokdorf near Hamburg (where a nuclear station was put on the grid that year) and in Wackersdorf, Bavaria (where a waste recycling plant was to have been built but ultimately wasn’t) tens of thousands of demonstrators and police battled each other at the construction fences.
During nights unknown attackers felled more than a hundred power pylons up and down the country.
Two weeks ago the Swedish power station Forsmark 1 (150 km north of Stockholm) just barely scraped past a “worst possible incident”. Research by environment activists has found that it was only minutes to a meltdown and hence a release of radioactivity comparable to that in Chernobyl.
But this time there have been no demonstrations in Germany as yet, the movement is responding reservedly or not at all to the near-catastrophe in the north. Only the initiative »Ausgestrahlt« (Radiated) around the tireless Gorleben veteran Jochen Stay a few days ago called on all nuclear opponents to send emails to the federal government and readers’ letters to the newspapers to mount “pressure for a real exit”. Stay said there would soon be advertisements with this demand in large daily newspapers.
The events in Sweden “in one fell swoop bring back into awareness the terrors of atomic energy”, says Stay. Europe had been only seven minutes away from a catastrophe like the one in Chernobyl.
»Ausgestrahlt« is an alliance of civic action groups and environment activist organisations.
“Please get active! Take part in the public debate!” Stay appeals to all potential supporters. He argues that despite the events in Sweden, in Germany the pressure from the nuclear lobby to extend nuclear power station running times will increase. “We have to oppose this together, with newspaper ads, emails, readers’ letters or whatever.”
The passivity of the nuclear opponents is not just due to the summer holidays. The once strong and politically influential anti-atomic movement has in any case lost strength and drive.
No longer a mass movement, it has most recently concentrated, and quite successfully at that, on harassing waste transports to Gorleben (temporary storage hall) or Ahaus (temporary storage hall) and most recently also the transports to and from the uranium enrichment plant at Gronau. At some locations the initiatives are struggling mostly on the litigation level against final and temporary waste deposits.
Apart from the fact that extra-parliamentary movements are currently not exactly flavour of the month, there are specific reasons for the waning of the anti-nuclear scene. Probably an essential one is that many environmentally conscious people feel themselves reasonably represented in regard to the nuclear exit after the Red-Green and by the present grand coalition, which includes the apparently steadfast environment minister, Social Democrat Sigmar Gabriel.
This although Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent affirmation of the agreement on phased switching off of the nuclear power stations has absolutely nothing to do with the movement’s “old” demand to close down all reactors immediately.
(More in-depth information is available from “No Nukes Inforesource” at
http://www.ecology.at/nni/map.php?country=Germany.)
By Reimar Paul
When more than 20 years ago a mighty pressure wave blew to smithereens the roof of Block 1 of the Chernobyl nuclear power station in Ukraine and a radioactive cloud contaminated half of Europe, the West German anti-nuclear movement responded with massive protests.
For weeks many people took to the streets in dozens of cities. In Brokdorf near Hamburg (where a nuclear station was put on the grid that year) and in Wackersdorf, Bavaria (where a waste recycling plant was to have been built but ultimately wasn’t) tens of thousands of demonstrators and police battled each other at the construction fences.
During nights unknown attackers felled more than a hundred power pylons up and down the country.
Two weeks ago the Swedish power station Forsmark 1 (150 km north of Stockholm) just barely scraped past a “worst possible incident”. Research by environment activists has found that it was only minutes to a meltdown and hence a release of radioactivity comparable to that in Chernobyl.
But this time there have been no demonstrations in Germany as yet, the movement is responding reservedly or not at all to the near-catastrophe in the north. Only the initiative »Ausgestrahlt« (Radiated) around the tireless Gorleben veteran Jochen Stay a few days ago called on all nuclear opponents to send emails to the federal government and readers’ letters to the newspapers to mount “pressure for a real exit”. Stay said there would soon be advertisements with this demand in large daily newspapers.
The events in Sweden “in one fell swoop bring back into awareness the terrors of atomic energy”, says Stay. Europe had been only seven minutes away from a catastrophe like the one in Chernobyl.
»Ausgestrahlt« is an alliance of civic action groups and environment activist organisations.
“Please get active! Take part in the public debate!” Stay appeals to all potential supporters. He argues that despite the events in Sweden, in Germany the pressure from the nuclear lobby to extend nuclear power station running times will increase. “We have to oppose this together, with newspaper ads, emails, readers’ letters or whatever.”
The passivity of the nuclear opponents is not just due to the summer holidays. The once strong and politically influential anti-atomic movement has in any case lost strength and drive.
No longer a mass movement, it has most recently concentrated, and quite successfully at that, on harassing waste transports to Gorleben (temporary storage hall) or Ahaus (temporary storage hall) and most recently also the transports to and from the uranium enrichment plant at Gronau. At some locations the initiatives are struggling mostly on the litigation level against final and temporary waste deposits.
Apart from the fact that extra-parliamentary movements are currently not exactly flavour of the month, there are specific reasons for the waning of the anti-nuclear scene. Probably an essential one is that many environmentally conscious people feel themselves reasonably represented in regard to the nuclear exit after the Red-Green and by the present grand coalition, which includes the apparently steadfast environment minister, Social Democrat Sigmar Gabriel.
This although Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent affirmation of the agreement on phased switching off of the nuclear power stations has absolutely nothing to do with the movement’s “old” demand to close down all reactors immediately.
(More in-depth information is available from “No Nukes Inforesource” at
http://www.ecology.at/nni/map.php?country=Germany.)
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Ergänzungen
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11.08.06
Verhaltene Reaktion
Nach dem Beinahe-GAU in Schweden bleibt die deutsche Anti-Atom-Bewegung
passiv
Von Reimar Paul
Als vor über 20 Jahren eine gewaltige Druckwelle das Dach von Block 1
des ukrainischen Atomkraftwerks Tschernobyl zerfetzte und eine
radioaktive Wolke halb Europa verstrahlte, reagierte die (west-)deutsche
Anti-Atom-Bewegung mit massenhaften Protesten. Wochenlang gingen
zahlreiche Menschen in dutzenden Städten auf die Straße. In Brokdorf an
der Unterelbe und im bayerischen Wackersdorf lieferten sich zehntausende
Demonstranten und die Polizei Schlachten an den Bauzäunen. Nächtens
knickten Unbekannte landauf, landab mehr als hundert Strommasten um.
Vor zwei Wochen schrammte das schwedische AKW Forsmark 1 knapp an einem
GAU vorbei. Nach einem Stromausfall fehlten nach Recherchen von
Umweltschützern nur wenige Minuten, bis es zu einer Kernschmelze und
damit einer vergleichbaren Freisetzung von Radioaktivität wie in
Tschernobyl gekommen wäre. Doch dieses Mal bleiben in Deutschland
Demonstrationen gegen Atomkraft bislang aus, die Bewegung reagiert
verhalten bis gar nicht auf die Beinahe-Katastrophe im Norden.
Lediglich die Initiative »Ausgestrahlt« um den unermüdlichen
Gorleben-Veteranen Jochen Stay rief vor wenigen Tagen alle
Atomkraftgegner dazu auf, E-Mails an die Bundesregierung und Leserbriefe
an Zeitungen zu schreiben, um »Druck für einen wirklichen Ausstieg« zu
machen. In den nächsten Tagen würden zudem Anzeigen mit dieser Forderung
in großen Tageszeitungen geschaltet, kündigte Stay an.
Die Ereignisse in Schweden machten die »Schrecken der Atom-energie auf
einen Schlag wieder bewusst«, sagt Stay. Nur sieben Minuten hätten
Europa von einer Katastrophe wie in Tschernobyl getrennt. »Ausgestrahlt«
ist ein Zusammenschluss von Bürgerinitiativen und Umweltverbänden.
»Bitte werdet aktiv! Mischt Euch in die öffentliche Debatte ein«!,
appelliert Stay an alle potenziellen Mitstreiter. Trotz der Ereignisse
in Schweden werde in Deutschland der Druck der Atomlobby in Richtung
Laufzeitenverlängerung zunehmen. »Wir müssen gemeinsam dagegenhalten, ob
per Zeitungsanzeige, E-Mail, Leserbrief oder wie auch immer.«
Dass die Atomkraftgegner auffällig passiv bleiben, liegt nicht nur an
den Sommerferien. Ohnehin hat die einstmals starke und politisch
interventionsfähige Anti-Atom-Bewegung an Stärke und Schwung eingebüßt.
Längst keine Massenbewegung mehr, konzentrierte sie sich zuletzt -
durchaus erfolgreich - auf die Behinderung von Castortransporten nach
Gorleben oder Ahaus sowie zuletzt auch auf die Transporte von und zur
Urananreicherungsanlage Gronau. An einigen Standorten kämpfen
Initiativen meist auf juristischer Ebene gegen End- und Zwischenlager.
Abgesehen davon, dass alle außerparlamentarischen Bewegungen derzeit
nicht gerade Hochkonjunktur haben, gibt es spezifische Gründe für das
Schwächeln der Anti-Atomkraft-Szene. Wesentlich dürfte sein, dass sich
viele Umweltbewegte nach der rot-grünen auch von der Großen Koalition
und insbesondere von dem standfest erscheinenden Umweltminister Sigmar
Gabriel (SPD) in Sachen Atomausstieg einigermaßen vertreten fühlen.
Wobei die jüngst von Kanzlerin Angela Merkel bekräftigte Vereinbarung
über eine schrittweise Abschaltung der AKW mit der »alten«
Bewegungsforderung nach sofortiger Stilllegung aller Meiler allzu viel
ja gar nicht zu tun hat.