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The Rhine valley is an active tectonic fault, so after Fukushima it does not sound like the best idea to build nuclear power plants there. Furthermore, the regi
by iSnow 13y ago
The Rhine valley is an active tectonic fault, so after Fukushima it does not sound like the best idea to build nuclear power plants there. Furthermore, the region is one of the more densely populated one in Germany and it is one of the economic powerhouses (BASF, SAP) and one of the important transport corridors in Europe (ports of the Netherlands -> Bavaria, Switzerland, Italy).
The Biblis power plant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblis_Nuclear_Power_Plant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblis_Nuclear_Power_Plant) is located directly at the core of this region, is one of the oldest reactor in Germany and one of the most powerful. It was built in the early 70s, so there is no protection against plane crashes, no secondary remote control room. If it was destroyed, roughly a million people would have to be evacuated immediately and because it is situated right at the Rhine river, major cities like Cologne and Dusseldorf downriver would have to deal with radioactive water flowing by.
Just a worst-case scenario, but people just felt uncomfortable with risks like that.
- arethuza 13y agoI was surprised recently to see that there have been some fairly large volcanic eruptions in what is now Germany in what is, at least in geological terms, very recent history (12,900 years ago): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laacher_See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laacher_See
- iSnow 13y agoWhen I was little, we visited Laacher See and my parents told me of the recent (well, geologically speaking) eruptions. Spend days dreaming and hoping that the Eifel volcano would erupt again :) Near the end of the Rhine valley in Switzerland is Basel which was devastated by an earthquake in the 14th century (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1356_Basel_earthquake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1356_Basel_earthquake)
- arethuza 13y agoAccording to the Wikipedia page the last eruption at Eifel was 10,000 years ago and it looks like 10,000 to 20,000 years between eruptions, so you might get your wish! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eifel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eifel