The Berlin Diaries: The Wave That Killed Nuclear Power?

My wife's parents have a small weekend cottage located just outside of Rheinsberg, an hour and a half north of Berlin. We often go up there on our free weekends, as it gives us the chance to break free of the city and well as from everything that is associated with mobile technology and the Internet. My cell phone barely works there and I usually forgo my laptop too, preferring instead to write my thoughts down in a notebook. Whenever I am there I realize that that I would be quite content living with less if it meant that I could free myself of the aggressiveness of the modern world, alas, an unrealistic dream.

With the weather back once again warm, Dörthe and I decided to drive up last Friday to re-open the cottage after the hard winter give the place a spring cleaning (I ended up whacking down several dozen molehills with a spade). Little did I know of the disaster unfolding in Japan, or better said, apart from hearing that yet another earthquake had hit the country, it was only while making lunch the next day that I realized what was going on. “Did you hear about what has been going on?” Dörthe suddenly called out. “That quake we heard about triggered a huge tsunami that has killed a several thousand people and caused an explosion at a nuclear power plant.” “Oh Christ,” I replied, putting my knife down and going over to the radio to listen.

Now, had I been at home at the time, I probably would have dropped everything and logged on to the New York Times online, but stuck with only a radio I had to settle with the grim account in words only, rather than images. I'm glad we didn't have that possibility, to be honest. The analysis that followed the news update gave me more than enough material to imagine the extent of the catastrophe without being swept away by those endless video replays of the tsunami destroying everything in its path. Yes, we did end up watching the videos when we came back to Berlin Sunday, and yes, the images are more horrifying than any Hollywood blockbuster, so much so that I have been difficulties sleeping. But in being spared access to “the world wide window” this weekend I'm starting to wonder whether this hyper feed of information is really all that good for our psyche.

Not that I just want to sit here and lob criticism about the Internet, mind you. What I am hoping from this tragedy is that the images coming from Fukushima will make people finally take a critical look at the potential dangers of nuclear power, and decide that it’s simply not worth it. I hope that the images of the plant’s reactors exploding into the air will burn themselves into people’s heads, forcing people to say once again “Hell no, we won’t glow.”

On Monday I watched a documentary film about the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania. It is a moment I remember quite well as a child, as my parents were active in several environmental and anti-nuclear movements at that time, and when the accident occurred, we were living just 300 miles north of the plant. The Coalition of West Valley Nuclear Wastes, to which my parents belonged, held several emergency meetings where people started to discuss frantically what might happen if the reactor were to blow. Would we be safe from the cloud of radioactive gas if it were to travel up north? Would we have to evacuate our homes? How far away from the plant was truly safe? Watching this video, it all came back to me quite vividly, sitting there as a child, watching how helpless these grownups felt and wondering if we would be forced to leave home for good. And seeing the video, it was frightening to see how the residents living near the plant were left in the dark while workers at Three Mile Island, as well as state government officials and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, all squabbled among themselves to determine whether the situation called for the declaration of a full-scale emergency. It just seemed absurd. Moreover, I was shocked when I went over to the New York Times and looked up the headlines from back then:

· “Nuclear Foes See Grave Risk in Pennsylvania Mishap, but Utility Aides Are Unalarmed,”

· “CONGRESS IS BRIEFED; Carter Aide at Scene Says Danger to the Public Is Believed Remote”

· “Atomic Plant Is Still Emitting Radioactivity; 'No Alternative,' Official Says Nuclear Power Plant Still Emitting Some Radioactivity 'No Cause for Alarm'”.

Ironically, one of the reasons why the public and the press did eventually grasp the imminent danger of Three Mile Island was because of the film The China Syndrome, which had come to American movie theatres just twelve days before the accident occurred. With the premise behind the movie’s plot uncannily similar to the events unfolding in Pennsylvania, it was a moment where life was truly imitating art, where the explanation of what happens when the core of a nuclear reactor melts down was not being offered by Three Mile Island’s officials but instead by a Hollywood thriller starring Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, and Jane Fonda. In short, it was a rude awakening for the public, and a terrifying moment as well, as the realy danger of Three Mile Island’s reactor core melting down, hitting the water table directly below the plant, and creating an explosion of radioactive steam, became vividly real through the film. The consequences would have been horrific.

At this very point I wrote yesterday: “Fortunately, it seems that the kind of meltdown that nearly occurred at Three Mile Island is impossible at Fukushima.” Perhaps, but within the past 24 hours we have witnessed the possible rupture of the No. 3 reactor, which is releasing radioactive steam into the air, and word of 50 workers who are desperately trying to keep things under control. And meanwhile, the wake of the tsunami has left thousands of Japanese dead, even more homeless, and a city with a metro population of 36 million facing a possible mass evacuation.

The crisis simply seems to have no end here.

I was going to write here about how our Internet-saturated age offers the public “transparency” in such moments. Perhaps, rather than the word “transparency,” “voyeurism” is a better word. With so many frightening news updates, expert opinions, and videos, it’s impossible to break one’s thoughts free from the situation in Japan.

Still, I do hope that the images of Fukushima force an about-face in regard to nuclear policy, because every time I hear an official attempt to justify nuclear power I become livid with rage. Claims such as “We can also experience meltdown in our thoughts when we start to compare things that are not comparable,” made by the pro-nuclear journalist Wolfgang Hernes in the German talk show Anne Will this past Sunday, are appalling. No, Mr. Hernes, many nuclear reactors will never have to face earthquakes or tsunamis, but consider this: Fukushima only underlines the fact that we have been playing devil’s advocate in our relentless thirst for energy for far too long. The disaster at Fukushima was caused in part by the fact that the Tokyo Electric Power Company had let numerous safety violations at their plants slide over the past several years, and because of that the citizens are paying dearly. Such words seem to be nothing more than a rude slap in the face to the tragedy that is currently unfolding.

If this past week’s disaster in Japan has any long-term benefit, it might be this: we are being forced to rethink our ways, not just in the future, but now. Normally I would be complaining about how much information is being spewed out online, but for once I think that the scare tactic is working and that the public’s growing concern could make a serious dent on the nuclear industry. Here in Germany, all nuclear power plants that were built before 1980 have been forced to shut down for the next three months as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government reviews their safety in light of the events in Fukushima. And, on a personal level, I know that many of my colleagues are talking about switching over energy providers that only offer renewable energy sources. We are planning to do so too.