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."

Comments

This was already known in 86

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:This was already known in 86

[dunkelfalke]

And you know why? Because we basically have stopped to collect mushrooms after Chernobyl - nowadays people don't even know anymore what mushrooms are actually edible. We also test every killed wild boar for radiation and if it exceeds allowed radiation levels the meat is disposed. In fact, there are still some wild boars that exceed allowed radiation levels.

And as for effects, you are, again, a liar. My ex gf who was originally from Belarus had to have her thyroid removed because as a kid she went outside in the rain on 27.04.1986.

You are a bloody liar and you really should go drink some polonium tea.

guess who

[Anonymous Coward]

mdsolar back with a new round of unprovable nuclear fearmongering clickbait

Nothing happens by accident in Germany

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Be it Volkswagen cheating emission standards, or radio active waste being dumped, nothing happens in Germany by accident. They level of documentation they maintain, the procedures they follow, it is just incredible. We sell software and we know much they check and verify before they will accept an upgrade to the next version.

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.

More mdsolar's bullshit

[AchilleTalon]

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.

Re:Did Americans visit the moon?

[Aighearach]

You may or may not have some sort of radiology education, but your joke is left un-funny by the fact that the most famous case of intentional polonium poisoning was done using tea.

Re:Did Americans visit the moon?

[dunkelfalke]

Actually, not quite. It was built, owned and operated by organisations that were as close to private industry, as it was possible in the USSR back then.

The actual government was very unhappy with the things done at that power plant. Let me quote an interesting report by Andropov (head of KGB back then, USSR ruler later):

21 February 1979 #346-A
Moscow
Shortcomings in the Construction of the Chernobyl Atomic Power Station

According to information available to the USSR KGB cases of deviations from designs and also breaches of the techniques of construction and installation work have occurred at individual parts of the construction of the second unit of the Chernobyl atomic power station, which might lead to failures and accidents.
The columns of the framework of the machine shop have been installed with a misalignment from the layout axes of up to 100 mm between the columns and in individual places there are no horizontal connections. The wall panels have been arranged with a misalignment from the axes of up to 150 mm. The roof slabs were arranged with a deviation from the instructions of the design supervision. The crane runways and the stopways have drops in height of up to 100 mm and in places a slope of up to eight degrees.
Cde. V. T. Gora, the Deputy Chief of the Construction Directorate, gave orders for the production of a backfill of the foundation in a sector where the vertical waterproofing had been damaged in many places. Such violations with the knowledge of Cde. V. T. Gora and Cde. Yu. L. Matveyev, the chief of the building complex, were also permitted in other construction sectors. The damage of the waterproofing might lead to groundwater getting into the station's premises and to radioactive contamination of the environment.
Sufficient attention is not being paid by the management of the Directorate to basic economy on which the operation of which the quality of construction depends in many respects. The concrete plant is operating irregularly and the quality of its output is poor. Cracks were made in the concrete when pouring especially heavy concrete, which led to the formation of pits and stratification of the foundation. The approach routes to the Chernobyl Atomic Power Station are in a disastrous condition.
The construction of the third high-power line is being delayed, which might lead to a restriction on the use of the capabilities of the second power unit.
One hundred and seventy people received work-related injuries during three quarters of 1978 as a result of insufficient monitoring of the condition of the safety equipment and the loss of working time was 3,366 man-days.
The KPU CC has been informed of the substance of these violations by the Committee for State Security.
This is reported for purposes of information.
Chairman of the Committee [signature] Yu. Andropov