Under Control Script

 

Pan over nuclear rod

2.12 Once upon a time there was a grand and bold utopian vision of a pioneering new energy source that would work in powerful synergy with nature’s purest of resources.

 

(over water)

3:15 One hundred and twenty thousand kg of water passes through a nuclear reactor’s core every minute, sustaining a steady temperature for the uranium fuel and converting to steam, to drive the plant’s turbines. And every second deep within the embrace of the water a million trillion nuclear reactions take place.

 

Man gets suited up.

3.53 The process of harnessing energy by manipulating atoms is divisive and dangerous.

 

Blue water

04.19 In the bowels of the nuclear machine fuel is being exchanged. The eery blue light says something of the fundamental manipulation of nature that is taking place. The light given off indicates the intensity of the nuclear reaction. As uranium atoms break down they give out energy (slight pause) and radiation. The intensity of the blue glow indicates how fierce the nuclear fission, and how much radioactivity is being given off.

 

05.03 At the heart of every nuclear power unit are the boron control rods, which absorb neutrons and stop the chain reaction whenever needed. When the rod is removed the process of fission becomes self-sustaining and the heat that is given off is the source of energy we know as nuclear power.

 

Exterior Power Station

05.35 Nuclear power was supposed to change the human landscape forever, replacing dirty coal and oil and giving mankind the ability to slide into the 21^st century with unlimited energy resources.

 

But harnessing power from splitting the atom has occupied a difficult space between humanity’s ambitions and fears for the future. In the gap between risk and control, threat and beauty, lie mysteries that have spawned global debate, and an accident or two along the way.

 

Office & “HELP!” on computer screen.

06.22 While the world at large is deeply fearful of nuclear power industry professionals like to describe it as “good-natured”. Can we ever hope to get the arguments and the science truly under control?

 

Electricity Pylons

06.40 Every power plant is just an electricity factory but they must be governed by the most exacting systems and disciplines.

 

(pause for loudspeaker)

 

Cooling Tower

The iconic cooling towers form the bridge between technology and nature, reducing the temperature of the reactor cooling water being discharged into the environment. 

 

Gates

07.14 Entry to the plant demands the strictest security processes. Somehow terrorism has become strongly associated with nuclear fission .

 

Smoke Machines

07.24 These are smoke machines designed to produce a 300 meter thick obscuring blanket should danger approach from land or sky.

 

Night

07.44 While the public at large has often questioned the dark forces that operate within the super secure nuclear buildings, the industry insists it has developed safety to the point where there is today almost no chance of a major accident happening.

 

Moon

08.02 They say the nightmare that was Chernobyl, or even Fukushima, could never happen in Germany.

 

08.13 Control Panel

 

Aston: Eberhart Hoffmann

            Powertech Training Centre

 

“We are standing in front of the reactor safety board. It signals to the operators if essential indicators have reached a level that potentially means we’re headed towards a harmful situation. And this large horizontal bar is what is called the reactor trip. Every signal that reaches this point and is illuminated would trigger a safe shutdown of the reactor. It would take only one to three seconds. And that would stop all nuclear heat generation.”

 

Control Room

9.07 The control room is the brain of any nuclear plant. Control room simulators were first introduced internationally after the Three Mile Island disaster of 1979. Then, a human error by a poorly-trained employee in the control room contributed massively to the scale of the accident and toxic radiation leaked into the surrounding neighbourhood.

 

Circular Dial on Wall

09.27 Since then, even very experienced operators will spend hundreds of hours training in simulator centres every year.

 

09.38

- Hello, Mr Blaisig? Yes, we have a minor error at our facility. At the moment we can’t run to full capacity. We are working to eliminate the error as quickly as possible. I’ll contact you when we’ve eliminated it and can run at full capacity again.

- Stefan, we have a report arriving.

- Here’s some info for the two of you too. The fitter reported it is probably a broken shaft on Pump VC 13. So we will shut down Pump VC 13 now.

 

10.13

- Andreas, your ventilation switched over, TL24. Helmut, the ventilation in SAW switched over 20TL24.

- OK.

- Helmut, the pressure in SAW is going up, it’s at 12 mbar.

- Really? What’s the RPV pressure at?

- The RPV pressure is at 55 bar now.

- OK.

10.31

- Ventilation shut down.

- Now we’ve got an automatic ventilation shut down.

- Helmut?

- Yes?

- The gullies in Room 602 have opened....

- Yes, I can see they have opened...

- Andreas?

- Pressure chambers are wet. Heiko?

- Yes?

- Looks like we have a leak in containment. We now have an automatic evacuation alert. The fire alarm is activated too. Please signal the evacuation alarm in the whole control centre.

11.04

- Helmut?

- Switching reactor to minimum load. Now at minimum load.

- Ok. Reactor now switched to minimum load.

- Coolant circulation pumps at minimum speed and the control rods are retracting.

- Pressure still rising in the containment?

- The pressure in the containment vessel is 200 mbar.

11.26

- It’s still climbing.

- Ok, time to initiate a reactor trip.

- Helmut, initiate the reactor trip.

- OK.

- Reactor trip initiated, ready for collective retraction.

- Emergency shut down?

- Yes.

- Emergency shutdown initiated.

 

Control Room

11.53 Wherever possible the technology must be prepared for human error. A worker making a small mistake cannot result in calamity. During the first 30 minutes of something going wrong, the control room software is programmed to be able to make the necessary decisions to manage the situation, giving the experts time to focus on the problem.

 

15:35

“A human being can of course mess up. Push a wrong button, turn the wrong control element. So  at the working level,  we now have what are called locking mechanisms. So the automated systems check if the bearing has a sufficient oil supply, if the coolant for the motor or pump is there. Is everything ready? If the automated system confirms this it releases the pump to allow a person to activate it by hand. Of course, all the systems responsible for such tasks have backups on site. We have enough backups to lower the chance of complete system failure. To put it in academic terms, the chances are one in ten to the minus seventh power. In everyday language, we’d say that it is humanly impossible. “

 

13.27 Boardroom

- Well....

- I think that should be about right.

- Just put that in there.

 - Between those, right? - Do we want to start the RL?

- After feed water provision, heating the reactor.

- Good. The group has decided on the sequence. We all know the steps are described in the operations manual, although, as we all know, the exact sequence can be discussed. It can differ a bit. So yesterday there were a few things that didn’t work all that well....Perhaps we can talk about that now...”

 

Glass Model

14.12 Loss of water is the most common cause of disaster. A reactor is like a huge kettle that is always switched on. Without enough water pumping through it, temperature increases massively; by up to 40 degrees each second. This complex model is designed to show how easily staff can be fooled into thinking a reactor suffering loss of water can still look full as the remaining water continues to splash around an empty system, fooling its sensors.

 

14.52

“First we have the reactor pressure vessel. The hot water runs out of the pressure vessel, goes through the steam generator where it releases its heat, and is then pumped back through the main coolant pump. The error starts when the pressure relief valve stays open when it should be closed. The pressuriser starts foaming up. Pressure in the reactor vessel drops and bubbles begin to form in the core. The water in the pressure vessel boils. And what you are seeing now is a phenomenon that we call a water hammer. Basically what happens is that a wave forms in the circuit of lines. As you can see, the pressuriser, fools personnel in the control room into thinking there is enough water in the system. As you can see, the lines are completely empty.”

 

 

16.09 Deep inside the power plant is a doughnut shaped, emergency “condensation chamber”. When an accident occurs resulting in loss of cooling  water, steam is carried out through pipes into this chamber, which acts like a sponge, soaking up the excess energy and relieving the pressure inside the reactor.   

 

Pause...

 

(over shot of white dome)

16.38 Multiple layers of metre-thick, steel skin envelop the chamber, and the rest of the plant’s internal organs, like layers of an onion. Nothing can be allowed to get in and nothing must be able to escape into the delicate world outside.

 

Workers in Blue

17.07  A typical power plant will have between 750 & 1000 employees inside its walls. A nuclear worker’s day revolves around a tightly controlled regime designed to ensure they never receive a higher dose of radiation than any worker in the outside world would. Every worker carries a personal radiation meter.

 

Workers in Yellow

17.35 Work clothes stay in the power plant and are always pure cotton. Synthetic materials attract radioactive ions. Their shoes are always rubber because rubber also does not attract radioactive particles.

 

High View

18.01 Closer to the heart of the nuclear machine carefully designed uniforms of rubber suits, shoes and head gear ensure that even here the dangerous by-product of man’s most potent energy factory remains only a distant danger. 

 

18.30 The machine is all powerful, ready to punish the slightest lapse with the greatest severity, the reactor always in quiet authority, man servile to the immense danger around him. Though there are many things outside the plant that are more threatening to man’s existence, the humming energy source here makes the world fret enormously.

 --- 

 

Laundry Room

19.07 The slightest fleck of radioactive paint from a contaminated area can be dangerous. It’s an inescapable fact that many parts of every power station are highly radioactive and require complex routines to keep the danger at bay. Here the worker’s clothes have received limited contact and can be washed, on an extra hot setting. However in every power station thousands of rubber suits must be incinerated each week .

 

19.41

Martin Bechtel

Head of Radiation Protection

Gundremmingon Power Plant

 

“When you open components for maintenance work that had radioactive reactor water or other radioactive materials run through them, then you have to assume that these fluids might very well come into contact with the body. And radiation protection’s task is to institute measures, like protective clothing, to keep radioactive materials from touching the skin.”

 

20.17 Clothes on Conveyor Belt

“Our policy is to avoid any unnecessary exposure to radiation. It doesn’t matter if it is direct exposure or contamination. The difference between direct exposure and contamination is that direct exposure acts on us externally, like light rays. Contamination is where there has been superficial contact with radioactive particles or materials. Radiation protection measures ensure that contaminations are extremely seldom given the vast quantity of work done here. The radioactive particles that cause contamination can be removed in most cases by simply washing your hands.  ”

 

Workers Mess Hall

21.10 It’s highly unlikely any of these men will ever get sick or injured as a result of his job. The coal and oil industry cannot boast a fraction of this record. So what is it that makes the outside world so fearful of what goes on in here?

21.22 Radiation Checking Cubicles

 

Please initiate body contact.

 

Four, three, two one…

 

Please turn around and position hands and feet for back reading….

 

Four, three, two, one….

 

No contamination found.

 

 

21.49 Radioactive Bottles.

There are three types of radiation:  alpha, beta and gamma. Whilst Alpha particles can be stopped by skin, Gamma particles easily penetrate us, causing cancer.

22.03  When radiation escapes it’s most often in the millions of gallons of water that flows through the plant, so constant testing is essential.

 

22:13

Udo Krumpholz

Nuclear Chemist

This is what’s called a Marinelli beaker and we analyse the sample in the Marinelli beaker for ten minutes, as per regulations. And we end up with a total gamma value, ie. the total radioactivity. We have threshold values for this water upon delivery. We then mix these samples to make weekly, monthly and quarterly samples, which we again analyse for radioactivity. We perform specific individual analyses as well, which are used in accounting and reporting to authorities in our water quality reports.“

 

23.01 Radiation Cubicles

 “Good day, if you have objects with you please place them in the analysis unit and position hands and feet for a frontal reading. “

 

23:15

The top of the reactor core is the window right into the beating heart of the plant and beneath the base of this pool is where the energy is created. The stillness of the scene belies the furious nuclear reactions occurring just out of sight.

 

Reactor Core

23.30 The blue glow, or Cherenkov radiation, shows nuclear fission is occurring. When the speed of the charged particles exceeds the speed of light in water the ghostly radiance appears. Producing nuclear energy is essentially simple. Pack Uranium 235 into fuel rods, and fire neutrons into it. A nuclear chain reaction begins, breaking big atoms into smaller ones and giving huge quantities of energy in the process.

 

24.08

“We use about 130 fuel elements for a single fuel cycle and during revision we load in the fuel required for the next year. We shut down operations and open the reactor pressure vessel. Then we transfer each element with the loading device, moving spent elements to the cooling pond and loading new elements into the core. Covering the elements with one to two metres of water provides a good radiation shield. It’s the minimum level of protection used  when dealing with fuel equipment. So this layer of water is absolutely sufficient to stop both neutron and gamma radiation emissions.”

 

High Shot

25.04 By the end of the fuel’s lifetime it can no longer sustain the trillions of reactions needed every second. Replacing it with fresh fuel is a highly sensitive process, taking days to complete. The spent fuel being removed is extremely hot and highly radioactive. It’s moved to a cooling pool, filled with dissolved boric acid, which absorbs neutrons, preventing any final reactions from taking place.in the fuel's last breath.

 

Workers looking down into core)

25.42 Despite the intense radioactivity just beneath the workers the Boron water acts as an almost perfect insulation against it .

 

25.53 Castor Room

 

Ingo Grobβhans

Nuclear Physicist

 

 “Ok, here we can see we have a local dosage rate of approximately 20 microsieverts. That’s about five times the dosage of a transatlantic flight. So if someone stood here for an hour they would be exposed to the same dose as they would on a transatlantic flight. This is a Castor container, which stores spent fuel elements. It contains a heat quality of about 20 KW and has a surface temperature of about 50 degrees Celsius. So you can put a hand on it without burning yourself.”

 

 

26:54

After spending at least a year in the pool cooling down, used fuel is transferred to these dry storage units mixed with concrete. Every year, six more of these blue containers are added to the hall. But limited space is constantly increasing the pressure on the nuclear industry to find a solution to the long-term storage problem. And although these containers are considered safe now, they still hold some of the most toxic substances known to man, having the potential to cause enormous damage if they somehow escape in the future.

 

27:34

“Plutonium for example has relatively weak emissions but it can’t be allowed to enter the body. The World Health Organisation says a millionth of a gram can cause lung cancer. That means from that gram a million people get lung cancer, and from a kilo a billion people, and a few kilos all of humanity. Of course if this much plutonium was spread across the globe not every atom would enter people’s lungs, only a fraction would. But that does illustrate just how dangerous it is. That raises the issue of the waste from the nuclear industry, the legacy of nuclear waste. There are of course substances that must be kept out of the biosphere for an unfathomable amount of time.”

 

28:28

But where do you keep something this toxic?

 

 28.35

Dry geological caverns, such as salt caves, far beneath the earth’s surface are currently thought to be the safest place.

 

29:00

But a large amount of nuclear waste will remain radioactive for up to 15 million years: time frames the human mind just can’t digest.

 

Tunnel

29.14  Will these salt caves stay dry forever? And will our descendants thank us for the dangerous waste inheritance we leave behind for them to worry about?

 

29:30

Ronald Reagan once said that all the waste produced by a nuclear power plant in a year could be stored underneath a desk.

 

29:40

The reality is slightly less containable. Besides used fuel rods, nuclear power stations also produce high quantities of other medium and low-level active waste. Contaminated water, equipment and every day consumables, all become radioactive and need to be dealt with.

 

Tunnel

30.05 Each individual storage site is a huge operation to manage, and not without risks. Since this site in Morsleben stopped storing new waste these caves have become so unstable they could collapse, contaminating water supplies for kms around.

 

The cost of stabilising and closing off this site is estimated at 2.3 billion Euros.

 

30:38

This research centre in Karlsruhe was originally created to help develop new German nuclear plants.

 

Over time it has instead moved its focus to  investigating how to achieve the holy grail of a completely risk-free atomic energy system.

 

31:00

We’ve abandoned traditional nuclear technology and have greatly diversified our work. We do research on material structures and on key technologies. One of our specialities is investigating potentially serious incidents and developing ways to avoid danger. That means we observe the vital components of a nuclear reactor and try to apply the latest developments in science and technology to attain the maximum levels of safety possible.

 

31:47

But even just carrying out nuclear research safely is extremely difficult.

 

31:55

In most industries this would be a simple laboratory but if you’re working with nuclear waste  and radioactive materials that’s impossible .

 

…Pause to watch hands …

 

32:27

The institute’s last big project was to develop a new generation of German reactors that could keep dangerous toxic waste to a minimum by recycling it as fuel.

 

It was hoped that the technique of reprocessing used fuel would make nuclear energy more sustainable and make it a stronger competitor for emerging 'renewable' energy sources.

 

But its opponents argue that rather than increasing safety, reprocessed plutonium can be used in nuclear bombs and it increases the risk of terrorists or rogue states getting hold of it.

33:18

Nuclear accidents may be rare, but even in well-established plants they do happen. Once the smallest of details goes awry, the results can easily become catastrophic. This plant in Gundremmingen was once the world’s largest nuclear plant, until a terrible storm one day .

 

"There was a heavy sleet storm that caused the electricity lines to stop working, which is a normal situation in power plants. We began operating on auxillary power but as we went through the processes of changing over those responsible felt we needed to feed more water into the reactor to ensure it definitely had enough water in it. That was incorrect and led to too much water being supplied and a safety valve broke letting steam and water into the building. The facility worked as it was supposed to and the reactor trip worked instantly but unfortunately a steam leak can't be closed off immediately and hundreds of cubic meters of water entered the building."

34:48

Even before major disasters like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl occurred, public nervousness over nuclear power was already taking hold. By the time this plant in Zwentendorf, Austria, was completed in 1977 it was so controversial that an unprecedented national referendum was held, to decide whether it should ever be opened.

 

35:11

Well, I do think voting on it overwhelmed people. Certainly with regard to the technology. I think that was unprecedented, a referendum on opening a plant that cost 7 billion schillings to build. And  they called the referendum right before it was to go online.

 

The worst thing was, I experienced it myself, as the vote neared, my boss said we had to do everything we could if they set the models of the power station on fire. A group of opponents had formed and we feared they'd set the wooden buildings  on fire as part of their protest.

 

And so we sat in the administration building waiting for the results of the referendum vote to be counted. And my boss said, "Open up a bottle of champagne if this goes in our favour." Unfortunately, we just sat there biting our nails anxiously and then when it ended 49.5 to 50.5 against the power plant something kind of went to pieces in that moment.

 

36:20

What went to pieces was the blindly pioneering ambition of man’s atomic adventure. Going straight into life as a museum without drawing a single breath as a functioning plant it represented the first time Europeans would stand up and say no to nuclear power.

 

The finished plant was kept in standby mode for nearly 10 years under hopes that public opinion would slowly shift, until the explosion at Chernobyl. After that disaster this frail hope was abandoned and the plant became a training facility, with one small operating test reactor. It is now, ironically, one of world’s safest nuclear sites, but it has never produced any atomic  energy.

 

37:16  

This plant in Stendal, East Germany, was never even finished. It was given up after German reunification, when nobody in the West wanted to invest in a facility modelled on a Soviet design, especially with the memory of Chernobyl fresh in the public mind. Stendal was planned to become the largest power plant in Germany. Around 15,000 workers were once employed on the construction site.

 

Until recently plans were being developed to build a coal-fired power plant in its place. But local citizens were not keen to swap a volatile nuclear system for a less efficient, environment-polluting and more expensive and environment-polluting one instead. They mobilised strongly against the project, forcing it to also be abandoned.

 

Today, more than twenty years since it closed, demolition of the nuclear station still goes on, one piece at a time. Once one of the world’s most ambitious scientific and industrial projects, today just a massive eye sore.

 

 

 

38:58

The complexity of decommissioning a power plant that has actually gone into action is enormous. A thorough investigation into the history of the site has to be carried out, to carefully account for the condition of every individual item of equipment.

Their casual clothing and lack of any protective shield shows that the threat of radiation to the technicians here is negligible. Not all aspects of a dismantled plant will be at risk of contamination. Yet strict international legislation still requires every single piece of equipment, down to the last wire, to be checked. These workers at the decommissioned Block A of Gundremmingen Plant must use special radiation detectors to screen every dismantled part for evidence of contamination, before sorting the elements to be recycled.

 

40:05 (over moving exterior shots)

As Germany travels towards a future powered by alternative energy sources, the official cost of abandoning nuclear power has been estimated at 55 billion Euros. Unofficially, experts predict it to be closer to 250 billion.  

 

40:25

Marlies Philipp

Press Officer

Griefswald Power Plant

“Energiewerke Nord is the successor to all the state owned nuclear power plants. The dismantling of nuclear facilities, as we have been doing here since 1995, is of course a growth sector of the future. We know that nuclear power, all the power station blocks, have become obsolete. We all know about the decision to abandon nuclear energy. More closures will follow and we are of course working to get our foot in the door. We were recently commissioned by Obrigheim Nuclear Power Plant to lead the dismantling of their reactor.

 

Nature does its part to help, as our main nuclide, Cobalt-60, has a half-life of 5.3 years. So in 50 years the radioactivity will sink to a thousandth on its own. Some of it can go to the scrap dealer and some will have to go into a nuclear waste repository.”

 

Waste Storage

41:27 Once the nuclear fuel and contaminated waste has been removed and put into long term storage facilities like this one, radioactivity in the remaining power plant quickly falls to around 0.1% of the level of an operating plant, so decommissioning doesn’t pose significant health risks .

 

Suited Man

41.47 42.10 Even so, complicated processes like abrasive blasting of the reactor many surfaces, are meticulously carried out to remove any remnants of contamination, before material leaves the site.  All power plants have a lifespan of 20-50 years, beyond which it isn’t viable to keep operating them. It costs twice as much to decommission a nuclear plant as it does to build it. And incredibly, it will also take twice the lifespan of a plant to decommission and dismantle it.

 

42:37 Germany’s renewable energy alternatives may seem cleaner and simpler than this, but they aren’t vastly moreless reliable and they’re certainly not cheaper.

 

Closing Door

42.48 Closing the door on nuclear energy will be as much of a gamble and technical challenge as pursuing it was in the first place.

 

Street Signs (Biblis)

42.58 The German government has vowed to close down all nuclear power plants by 2022 and here in the nuclear town of Biblis thousands of jobs and companies are now at risk.

 

43:13

Armin Grunwald

Director

Institute for Technology Assessment

“If we look back at the hopes of those who worked to develop the technology to harness nuclear energy in the 1950s and 1960s, if you ask scientists, researchers and engineers who dedicated their lives to this cause, they weren’t out to harm anyone, but to exploit this energy source and to make a contribution to prosperity and peace. The slogan after all was “peaceful use of nuclear power”. Lots of life energy and entire biographies were dedicated to this technology, with the best intentions. And then to watch as it continually lost acceptance in the 70s and 80s and was finally phased out, or is still being phased out, by politiciansdid lead to resentment. People don’t want to do a job that keeps losing prestige like that.”

 

44.11 The Kalkar facility iswas a state of the art fast breeder reactor which cost 4 billion dollars billion to build. As the German environmental lobby became stronger and stronger Kalkar was never allowed to come into operation and was finally sold for 3 million dollars.

 

Barrier

44.26 Inside it, was enough wiring to circle the earth twice, enough concrete to build a 200km motorway – it had become the most sophisticated piece of rubbish that existed on the planet.

 

44:42

“Minister Riesenhuber announced the shutdown and that raised the question of what to do with the finished fast breeder nuclear plant in Kalkar. It all went very quickly. Lots of the parts were sent to Russia. Because the Russians came here and looked it over and said, “we don’t understand at all why a plant like this one wouldn’t be used. You should come to the Ukraine.” That Chernobyl business is what broke our backs. When Chernobyl exploded it was plain as day. We were only in the trial phase and they shut us down. No need to pull any punches, Chernobyl broke our backs.

 

Destroyed Reactor

45:38 And if Chernobyl catalysed Germans to question nuclear policy, the Japanese disaster at Fukushima was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was only 2 months later that Germany decided to abandon nuclear power for good and announced the closure of 17 power stations, employing 370,000. The power industry threatened there would be blackouts but the German people were firm. Over the years of dithering that preceded the decision the priceless new Kalkar reactor here had been kept idling at vast cost.

 

46:14

“Nine billion marks: that’s what this bit of fun cost. With extension, refitting, three years of waiting, paying electricity costs and everything else, it cost 9 billion marks. Here, for example, you can see the retrofitted cable trays. So technology was updated for fire safety compliance. Every cable was painted with three layers of fireproof paint. That means 100 painters spent a year doing that work.

 

They once calculated that approximately 5,000 people were employed here for 25 years. And I’m not including the baker, the guy who did the laundry, or the local businesses that supplied soap and toilet paper.”

 

Fairground

47:25 Today, the Kalkar nuclear plant is being put to a slightly different use....

 

47.33 It’s a surreal and somewhat tragic monument to a vision of a glorious atomic future that has reached a futile end.

 

Cooling Tower ride

47.58 The people have triumphed over the scientists. Democracy has seen off the powerful nuclear industry.

 

Outside Cooling Tower Ride

48.13 But can Germany’s vast energy needs really do without the easy fix of nuclear power? What will happen when oil and gas also stop flowing, as they surely will one day?

 

Arrows

48.33 Will the road to green energy still look so attractive then? So far the energy industry’s threatened blackouts have not happened and Germany even remains an exporter of electricity. Huge plans are in place to vastly increase production of green energy. The world watches with keen interest …

 

Control Room

49.00 But there are many who insist Germany has taken a step too far and will ultimately be forced to switch the lights of its nuclear sector back on.

 

49.17 And if that happens a decade from now it won’t only have to replace 17 multi-billion dollar power stations but also an entire infrastructure, and the knowledge base that goes with it.

 

49:50 – credits