After the Chernobyl reactor accident on April 26, 1986, a radioactive cloud descended on Germany. The disaster hit the Federal Republic and the GDR unprepared. There are no contingency plans.
by Irene Altenmüller
April 26, 1986, 1:23 am local time:A reactor explodes in the Soviet Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Radioactive materials are thrown 1,200 meters up into the atmosphere. The unimaginable has happened:The super meltdown, the worst accident that can be assumed that is no longer controllable. In the days that follow, radioactive clouds move across Europe. Germany is also affected.
Reactor accident in Chernobyl:FRG and GDR see no danger
After the explosion on April 26, 1986, the area 30 kilometers around Chernobyl was declared a safety zone. Special units measure the radioactivity here.The Soviet authorities only reported the accident on April 28, after Sweden and Finland had measured significantly increased radiation levels. Although little is known about the extent of the accident, the federal government is relaxed:In a television interview with the Tagesschau, Federal Minister of the Interior Friedrich Zimmermann (CSU) explains that any danger to the German population can be "absolutely ruled out". There is no reason to act. A danger would only exist within a radius of 30 to 50 kilometers around the reactor.
At first, the citizens of the GDR only found out about the accident from the western media. Only on April 29 does the first short report appear in the newspaper. Out of consideration for the socialist brother state, the GDR government tries to downplay the accident and possible dangers.
Governments unprepared for nuclear disaster
The reactor accident hit East and West equally unprepared. In Germany, too, there is no emergency plan, no legal requirements for limit values, no official recommendations as to which measures should be taken. That a catastrophe like this could occur was simply not thought possible - nor was it wanted to.
In the days that followed, radiation levels rose to alarmingly high levels in some regions. Parts of southern Germany are particularly affected - there, heavy rainfall washes the radioactive substances out of the atmosphere. But also on the East Frisian Norderney they are at the measuring stations seventeen times higher than the long-term average, in the Emsland Lingen even 48 times higher. Still no cause for concern? Scientists, politicians and the media disagree on this.
Radioactivity:Many foods and vehicles radiate
At the inner-German border, vehicles coming from the east were tested for their radiation exposure.Since there are no uniform recommendations, each federal state sets its own radiation limit values for food. Radiation also enters the human body via vegetables or cow's milk. Based on the recommendations of the Radiation Protection Commission, the Federal Government also issues recommendations on limit values, which, however, differ greatly from those of individual countries. For example, the federal government recommends a limit of 500 becquerels per liter for cow's milk, while Schleswig-Holstein only sets 50 becquerels per liter.
Schleswig-Holstein also has all trucks, cars and ships coming from Eastern Europe checked for radioactivity:around every 20th to 25th vehicle emits so much radiation that it has to be decontaminated. Ships are already asked to clean them on the high seas.
Various recommendations after the Chernobyl disaster
Playgrounds were closed in West Berlin after the reactor accident. But neither in the east of the city nor in the rest of the GDR were there such recommendations.The recommendations on how the population should behave in the face of radiation also vary. Taking iodine tablets is often recommended in the media, which means that these are sold out in pharmacies within a few days. The city of Hamburg advises its citizens not to go outside when it rains. Lower Saxony recommends allotment gardeners to remove the top layer of soil in their beds. Farmers should fetch their cows from the pasture and plow under leafy vegetables. Authorities recommend showering children after playing outside, school trips to the GDR or Eastern Bloc countries are cancelled.
On the other hand, the Federal Government, citing the Radiation Protection Commission, declares that playing and doing sports outdoors is harmless. A view that some politicians and scientists criticize as trivializing and negligent. The many different recommendations and instructions contribute significantly to unsettling the population.
Canned vegetables and UHT milk instead of fresh products
Farmers were advised to plow under their irradiated vegetables.The media reports, which are suddenly full of terms such as becquerel, millisievert, cesium-137 and iodine-131, also contribute to the uncertainty. On May 2, 1986, the TAZ headlined:"Distrust the officials - we too can be endangered". The federal government reacted to the increasing confusion with an order according to which the federal states had to adhere to the recommendations of the radiation protection commission - as a result of which many citizens preferred to do without fresh milk and vegetables and instead use UHT milk and canned vegetables.
GDR:"No health hazard"
While uncertainty is spreading in the Federal Republic, the GDR government remains relaxed:The radiation levels have risen for a short time and have stabilized at a "low level", they report. The fact that this level is sometimes a hundred times higher than before the catastrophe is not mentioned. Although the GDR received just as little information about the accident from the Soviet Union as the western countries, they stayed on course:"There was and is no risk to the health of the citizens of our state or to nature," explains the "New Germany " on May 2, 1986.
It causes "amazement and incomprehension when the Chernobyl disaster is used by the media and certain political circles and Western countries as an opportunity to unsettle the population with half-truths and speculation". Everything indicates that it is a matter of "targeted scaremongering" that is "intended to distract the world public from the disarmament initiatives of the Soviet Union".
Guide values instead of limit values
Most GDR citizens have long since received different information from the Western media and are just as unsettled as people in the West. The wide range of fruit and vegetables, which was intended for export to the Federal Republic and now ends up on the supermarket shelves in the GDR, hardly finds any buyers in the East either. Instead of limit values, the GDR government issues guideline values, which, according to the Office for Nuclear Safety, "certainly no immediate damage to health" is to be feared. They are also 500 becquerels for cow's milk, and 1,000 becquerels for leafy vegetables, which is significantly higher than in Germany (250 becquerels). There are no recommendations not to let children play outside or to close leisure facilities.
Honecker:Nuclear power "not the last word"
Two months after the disaster, on June 25, Erich Honecker gave advice on the accident in an interview about protection against radiation:His mother always washed the lettuce at home. However, he also adds:"I believe that nuclear power is not the last word."
The consequences of Chernobyl in Germany
After the reactor accident, the number of opponents of nuclear power in Germany increased by leaps and bounds.To this day, the Chernobyl reactor accident is considered the event that favored the rejection of nuclear power in Germany like no other until the Fukushima disaster in 2011. The number of vehement opponents of nuclear power rose in Germany from around 13 to 27 percent.
As a direct political consequence, the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety was founded in Germany just a few weeks later. A new radiation protection precautionary law is also passed in 1986.
The soils in Germany have not yet fully recovered from the radioactive contamination. Cesium-137 has a half-life of 30 years. This means that the burden has only roughly halved to date. Especially in southern Germany, wild animals, wild berries and mushrooms are still at relatively high levels in some regions.