Following the Fukushima disaster, the German government proposed a “delayed acceleration” of nuclear phase out, with the final shutdown scheduled for 2022. Can we therefore talk about a “reaction” to the Japanese reactor meltdown if the final exit won’t happen for a whole decade? Shouldn’t the exit be immediate if people, environment, and economy are all out on a limb? Is this really the farewell to residual nuclear risk? With reference to Ulrich Beck’s Risk Society, this article considers the paradoxical managing of nuclear risk, considered at once too risky for German risk society and yet socially acceptable for a further ten years.
DOI: doi.org/10.5282/rcc/5666