German Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin has announced the new line up for the German Reactor Safety Commission and the Radiation Protection Commission, having disbanded the boards of both bodies last December, claiming their make-up was too pro-nuclear.
Only two previous members of the RSK survive the reshuffle, with Trittin claiming that the board now has three overtly anti-nuclear representatives, three pro-nuclear people with the rest being neutral. The three antis are Richard Donderer of Physikerbüro Bremen, and Lothar Hahn and Wolfgang Thomas, both of the Oko-Institute at Darmstadt. Those overtly pro-nuclear are Werner Hartel of HEW in Hamburg, Wolfgang Hawickhorst of Gesellschaft für Nuklearservice at Essen and Wolfgang Thomas of GRS at Garching. Thomas and Hartel are the survivors from the previous commission.
Nine members of the former RPC retain their places on the new 14 person board. Trittin has also recently established a new expert committee to consider possible repository sites. All three committees reflect Trittin’s desire to ensure a more representative spectrum of opinion than existed in the past.
• The new president of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection, Wolfram König, has said there would be no reduction in reactor safety if he were to extend plants’ operating lives. Making his inaugural speech on 1 April, he said all plants will have to operate and then be decommissioned with the lowest possible radiological impact on employees, the public and the environment.
