Letter to the editor: glazing technology impresses visitors

Letter to the editor about your article "glazing technology impresses visitors" from august 9, 2012 bnn hardt edition
"more than 9,000 people work at kit ... safety research for the storage of radioactive residues employs an entire department ... günter roth explains how the nuclear liquid waste, which has become known as atomic soup, was disposed of ... using the model of the vitrification plant ... an impressive facility that visitors can view on several levels. the topic of vitrification has me particularly interested, says ..... the exhibition on the history of the reactor is very exciting, says .... walter r. from friedrichstal is also fond of the fr2, the first reactor planned, built and operated in germany for more than 100,000 hours ..."
the whole thing reads like a success story of german engineering for the benefit of humanity and with pride in the work done. enthusiasts among themselves who, despite the well-known problems with nuclear technology and the waste problem, completely admire this "antiquated" technology.
if you look at the topic from a different perspective, the former nuclear research center appears in a different light. at the beginning of research in the 1950s, many still believed that nuclear technology would solve the energy problem of the future and that a "handful" of radioactive waste could not create a disposal problem. however, it quickly became clear that this was pure illusion or targeted disinformation. it has also always been asserted that, purely statistically speaking, a nuclear accident, a gau, can occur at most every "hundred thousand years".
today, however, we know more about the misery that this technology can bring to people, animals, plants and the entire world: with harrisburg and chernobyl at the latest, belief in "safe" nuclear technology collapsed, and since fukushima it has been clear that the "greatest accident to be assumed" (gau) also occurs in high-tech countries - including at any time in germany or france - can occur. it has also been clear since asse what dangers posed by nuclear waste and that nuclear waste can never be eliminated (not even through vitrification). we are now informed by countless reports about the harmful extraction of uranium, about the production of weapons-grade plutonium or about the contamination of entire landscapes in countries that carelessly handle radioactive materials. the list of destructive effects of nuclear technology is long: contaminated air, soil and water in the vicinity of nuclear facilities (including research facilities), increased risk of cancer, especially in children, and much more shows the unpleasant side of human ingenuity and makes it clear that research should not be carried out into everything that humans are capable of. even in the 20th century there were inventions that we don't have to be proud of.
i think we should put the topic of nuclear energy aside and devote ourselves to new tasks that we can proudly report to future generations. with this we could show the world what we are made of and be happy that we have set a good example.
 


with kind regards

wolfgang oberacker


oberacker natur technik
gellertstr. 12
d-76344 eggenstein/karlsruhe
tel 0049-0721-706002
fax 0049-0721-7818622
info@oberacker.de
www.oberacker.de