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Comment by vanderZwan | Hacker News Reader

BTW, does anyone know the reason why the people in Germany in particular seem to have much stronger anti-nuclear stance than the surrounding countries?

This is entirely anecdotal of course, but I know many people from different European countries and (except for the physicists) all Germans I know seem to associate nuclear power with nuclear weaponry and polluting mother nature to a degree that other European countries just don't have. No matter what the educational background.

Is there some historical precedent? Some political movement unique to Germany?

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Likely a holdover from the Cold War and conflation of nuclear arms and nuclear energy generally. Germany, then West Germany specifically, was basically Ground Zero in the event of a superpower conflict so there was a significant anti-nuclear faction in Germany with respect to the basing of medium-range nuclear missiles, for example.

Yes, in the 80's the Green Party emerged at a perfect time where public sentiment was very anti-nuclear (weapons as well as energy) and to this day there's been a steady political force advocating for exit from nuclear power. Also, Germany has traditionally had a ton of coal, which was heavily subsidized, and there was less reason to look for alternative energy sources. France at the time was opposite, investing more in nuclear power.

This has its roots in a very strong anti-nuclear movement from the seventies. Why it was that strong in Germany, I don't know. But there is a Wikipedia article – maybe it has some information for you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-nuclear_movement_in_Germa....

> Why it was that strong in Germany, I don't know.

In some Simpsons episode a secret government film informs the viewer that Springfield is the designated "nuclear victim zone" of the US which will be used for calibrating ICBM targeting in the event of total nuclear war.

In the cold war, Germany was the designated nuclear victim zone.

I guess it is because german politicians have proven again and again that they cannot be trusted with this responsibility.

e.g. "Asse" was a salt mine to test storing nuclear waste. It was supposed to last for 20.000 years, but only lasted 20 and its not possible to retrieve the waste stored in there (and environmentalists warned that this would happen). So will you trust these people to get the decision right the next time?

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%...

Gorleben (another salt mine) was chosen for nuclear waste storage partly to piss of the former GDR since it is right next to the border. Neither a very good reason.

Compared to the US Germany just does not have any uninhabitated areas, where you can store nuclear waste.

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