Chernobyl 5th Anniversary

I was living in the town of Eichenau in the county of Fürstenfeldbruck just to the west of Munich when I was "interviewed" on the street while shopping in Fürstenfeldbruck.

It was the fifth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear plant disaster of 26th April 1986. I remember seeing the reports back then on UK TV and indeed fearing the radioactive cloud would reach our shores which it indeed did but seemed to be restricted to the Welsh, Cumbrian and Scottish hills where rain washed the contamination to the ground. Does anyone still remember 10,000 farms and over 4 million sheep being put under restriction in the UK and even in 2009, 370 farms still had restrictions?

Germany was far worse hit and even today in April 2018 all shot wild boar have to be tested for radiation before they can be slaughtered for human consumption. I know several people who still refuse to eat wild mushrooms from the forest.

I  hadn't been a German resident for much more than 6 months when interviewed and according to the newspaper, this is what I replied:


" The awareness of this technology only became apparent to most through this event. We have to further reduce our use of energy and we need alternative sources of energy as the burning of fossil materials is not exactly ideal. The Government needs to encourage these developments just as one must increase the subsidies of public transport. The progress in Germany is more advanced than in the UK"

  Seemingly I had a "green" streak in me back then and I must say I fully support the ban on nuclear power plants in Germany and would wish that all countries would follow. That doesn't mean I agree with the horrific support the German Government are still giving to open caste brown coal mining here and as I now have nearly one years experience of a PV + Battery system, I get very frustrated at some of the laws and restrictions, above all some of the ridiculous tax rules, forced on small private "operators" of such systems.

For at least 6 months of the year, we are as good as self-sufficient for electricity and water heating. Winter 2017/8 has not been too good for PV harvesting but still contributes a meaningful support. We will see what the result of the first 12 months is in June 2018 but we could hope for some 9,000 kWh produced, two-thirds for our use and one-third put in the public network.

Chernobyl was in many ways worse than Fukushima as the winds in Japan blew much of the radioactivity out to sea. 30 years later we are still paying the price and we haven't even begun to think about what to do with the waste. Nuclear power seems cheap at first but is actually very expensive when all costs of decommissioning are considered.

It can be dangerous flying too close to the sun.