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Did A German Nuclear Plant Intentionally Leak Radioactive Waste? (thelocal.de)
mdsolar shares this report from a Berlin news site:
A former engineer at one of Germany's nuclear reactors has made an astonishing claim: that the plant intentionally pumped radioactive waste into the atmosphere in 1986. Speaking to the Westfalischer Anzeiger, 83-year-old retired engineer Hermann Schollmeyer apparently decided it was time to come clean, three decades after the incident he describes.
The official story had always been that radioactive waste was unintentionally leaked into the air at the THTR reactor in Hamm in May 1986, the western German newspaper reports. But Schollmeyer now claims that the plant used the cover of the Chernobyl -- which had released a cloud of radioactive waste over western Europe -- to pump their own waste into the atmosphere, believing no one would notice.
"It was done intentionally," Schollmeyer said. "We had problems at the plant and I was present at a few of the meetings."
The official story had always been that radioactive waste was unintentionally leaked into the air at the THTR reactor in Hamm in May 1986, the western German newspaper reports. But Schollmeyer now claims that the plant used the cover of the Chernobyl -- which had released a cloud of radioactive waste over western Europe -- to pump their own waste into the atmosphere, believing no one would notice.
"It was done intentionally," Schollmeyer said. "We had problems at the plant and I was present at a few of the meetings."
Asking this 30 years later and expecting a definitive answer? Seriously?
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Basically they farted after the dog farted thinking no one would notice while blaming everything on the dog.
why do I develop the urge to lock those managers that thought this one up into the containment structure?
Damn those commies. Wait, what, this wasn't in East Germany? But how it possible? West Germany were the good guys? Now I don't know what to believe anymore.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Give me a break. 30 years ago? You want to talk now. Seriously, you need to go to jail, your a criminal that you said nothing till now. Either way. Untrue now.
... to Germany's decision to abandon nuclear power generation for good. Nuclear power generation just means too much accumulation of risk potential in a small space and in the hands of few people. It only takes a very few morons, criminals or MBAs to unleash that risk.
no one noticed
Hi,
as a German, I have to say, this is not news. This was already known in 86.
At the time Chernoby happened, I was on holiday in Hungry. For the, the question was, travel back to Germany or is it safer to stay in Hungry until the radiaoctive cloud had settled.
One of my friends was working for the only nuclear reactor in Hungry, doing the external measurements outside their reactor.
So while I did not trust the offical readings, I could trust my friend with the radiation levels in aroudn the Hungry reactor and hence track the radioactive cloud from Chernoby as well.
While we did this, we already noticed somethign wrong. The radiation levels in Germay were raising way to fast in comparison to the ones in Hungry even if you added in some weather effects. The media attributed this to misrepresentation of the actual readings by the soviets but I had access to the acctual readings in Hungry and they matched the offical readings very well.
Later on, it turned out a German test reactor had leaked readioactive materials and did not report it hopping Chernobyl would cover it until people spoke up and informed the government.
mdsolar back with a new round of unprovable nuclear fearmongering clickbait
People cheat when they think they can get away with it. People lie when they think they can get away with it. It would, could and does happen in every industry.
Look, these are the people who set up folding chairs and meticulously recorded the names of prisoners before gassing them. Or recorded the names of deserters who were caught and executed by firing squad just before the whole army surrendered in Stalingrad. I would not be surprised if every shell fired by every one of their AA guns was individually inspected, numbered and recorded by one soldier and signed off by his officer and countersigned by the officer's officer. They are that good in record keeping.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Just curious
It’s interesting how some plants like to suck up certain minerals. Rice and arsenic. Tobacco and polonium. What others do you know about?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THTR-300
OMG anOTHER mdsolar anti nuc power piece. Given the preponderance of opinions on slashdot for being pro nuclear power, why does mdsolar get so much airtime?
A former engineer at one of Germanyâ(TM)s
Germany is a trademark now?
Oh, no, wait, Slashdot is just still absolutely fucking shit at Unicode and the editors aren't doing their job. My mistake!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Germans poison and kill people. It's what they do. It's what they like. They like to kill people with gas and poison. You should never trust a German.
The plant manager heard it would give you super powers. Sadly, it only gave them lymphoma.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
It only takes a very few morons, criminals or MBAs to unleash that risk.
Please, enough already with the pleonasms!
The angry man always thinks he can do more than he can. -- Albertano of Brescia
Another piece of scaremongering FUD.
How...quaint.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I'm tired /. is still publishing lame and full of bullshit stories from mdsolar. There is no science content at all. Only pretention to uncover plots to kill us all. It seems obvious to me this guy is paranoid.
Achille Talon
Hop!
What is a statue of limitation in Germany on intentionally mass poisoning (irradiating) people?
We have a report on a possible intentional release of radiation from an experimental nuclear reactor from 30 years ago. This has as much relevance to modern nuclear reactors as the safety issues of a Ford Pinto should have on deciding to purchase a brand new Chevrolet C1500. Even though this is irrelevant to modern nuclear reactors we will no doubt have people making this connection to modern nuclear power.
This is straight up fear, uncertainty, and doubt from top to bottom.
So, we have people that broke the law on intentionally releasing radioactive gasses. If this can be proven then they should be punished under the law. If this happens in the future then the people should be punished. It's quite simple really, we have laws on the handling of radioactive material and when they are broken people need to be punished. This should have no relevance to the decision on whether or not we should build more nuclear power plants than people disposing of coal waste illegally would have on deciding to build another coal plant.
The description of the incident tells me this was a pebble bed reactor, a system that was found to have problems of the pebbled fuel getting stuck in piping. This is why none are operating today and why no one proposes building another reactor like it. It was a failed experiment and we've moved on. It's unfortunate this happened but if we allow this incident to hold up investment in new nuclear power then we will continue to derive power from dirty coal, expensive solar, or unreliable wind.
With a few notable exceptions we have a very long history of safe and inexpensive nuclear power. If we use a metric such as joules of energy produced compared to the number of deaths then nuclear power wins by a very large margin. The occasional death from people falling from windmills, solar panel mounts, or coal boilers don't make the news because industrial accidents are not news. Nuclear power accidents make the news because radiation is scary and because nuclear power accidents are rare.
What didn't make the news as widely as it probably should have was a fire at a large solar power plant last week. It disabled a very large solar collector which is likely to be out of operation for a very long time. Given that the power plant has been in a very poor financial situation for a very long time it is quite likely this incident could put them out of business for good. I challenge people to even identify the power plant I'm referring to. Google it if you like but the name of this plant is not something that that many people would recognize even though Chernobyl, Fukushima, and Three Miles Island are power plants that many know.
In short, move along there's nothing to see here.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.
... to Germany's decision to abandon nuclear power generation for good. Nuclear power generation just means too much accumulation of risk potential in a small space and in the hands of few people. It only takes a very few morons, criminals or MBAs to unleash that risk.
If I remember the numbers correctly. If a nuclear powerplant releases its polution to the air, it still releases less nuclear polution than a coal plant (coal always contains trace amounts of other minerals including radioactive, and we burn A LOT of coal).
Yes, the do.
And they own Clinton, the Bushes, Merkal and the Battenbergs of Britain.
Wake up folks, this is a diversionary propaganda piece by people who perceive you as highly educated, though naive vicitims.
That's the whole point of mdsolar posting this unsubstantiated crap and spreading the FUD. He is not just a random poster — he has a pro-solar agenda (either ideological or simply for-profit) and nuclear energy is the main competitor.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
... they have white smocks and clipboards.
Is slashdot posting so much dribble these days? popup news sites are all over the internet, doesnt mean they are sources of reliable information ..
That's the whole point of mdsolar posting this unsubstantiated crap and spreading the FUD. He is not just a random poster â" he has a pro-solar agenda (either ideological or simply for-profit) and nuclear energy is the main competitor.
Actually mdsolar is the de-facto might-as-well--be persona of billionaire T. Boone Pickens and several others who are driving the expansion of natural gas generation, to the utter destruction of all other reliable base load energy sources. Every solar and wind initiative is being built out with gas plants for 'support and peaking'. When the unreliables crap breaks and shuts down, when the subsidies dry up, when investors pull out, those gas plants will go on-line 24/7.
Case in point, Vermont just closed a nuclear plant that was generating ~70% of all electricity produced in the state... ~35% of the power used in the state... so they could bring in more electricity made from natural gas to run their electric heaters. They have nobly increased carbon emissions to help prove that CO2 is not the motivating factor behind these changes. They even import nuclear electricity from NH to show there are no hard feelings, or moral hang-ups. Vermont also leads the nation in all kinds of nanny meters, dark fiber and weird parasitic infrastructure that doesn't make an erg of energy, so they can calculate down to the micropenny how much it will all suck in the end.
The shutting of Vermont Yankee was a brazen act of social and corporate vandalism. It was a national treasure, a nuclear plant sited next to a hydroelectric power source that had the capacity (and direct connecting feeders) to black-start it. In any scenario of downed grids and interrupted fossil energy, VY could have been a beacon of hope and civilization. Now that region of Vermont will become a feudal electric barony gathered around the ~35MW output of the Vernon Dam.
In faux tribute to natural gas --- which imposes its own fragile infrastructure with as-yet unknown consequences, irreplaceable things are being destroyed.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
Emitted a cloud of pollutant under the cover of another's emissions? Often the dog's?
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
Why did you think they aren't?