[m12k]

Just a side thought: I wonder if the decommissioning of nuclear power plants might also partially be explained by an (at least perceived) increased risk of domestic terrorism? They're single points of failure, and they fail in spectacular fashion, making them excellent targets for someone wanting to cause havoc and terror.

[MagnumOpus]

They are also very well protected. The concrete reactor shields in Germany are designed to contain the core even if a figher jet flies into the reactor building at full speed (and have been designed that way for ages, way before 2001). The power plants and storage sites are more heavily guarded than just about any other areas in the country including military bases, so it's not possible to drive a truck with explosives up to the reactor building either.

It is way easier to commit attacks using chemical weapons or anthrax or conventional bombs, or to set off a dirty bomb with imported radioactive material than to breach a western European nuclear plant.

[kuschku]

> It is way easier to commit attacks using chemical weapons or anthrax or conventional bombs, or to set off a dirty bomb with imported radioactive material than to breach a western European nuclear plant.

Unless you happen to be one of the recent terrorists who committed attacks in Europe, and be employed in a nuclear powerplant.

Then things can quickly go wrong.

[thinkmilitant]

I would imagine the vetting process is rather extensive.

[kuschku]

Yet an IS terrorist worked at a nuclear powerplant. This wasn't hypothetical — this actually happened.