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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."
Basically they farted after the dog farted thinking no one would notice while blaming everything on the dog.
... 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.
Anyone who would purposefully releases some radioactive gas without approval should be prosecuted accordingly, and evidently it was already investigated, so this isn't even news. However, seeing that radiation risk is so highly mis-understood and inflated by Joe public, this type of headline hype deserves some measured response related to the risks.