BERLIN, April 5 (UPI) -- German officials for several days said they believed that a science reactor had lost nuclear material that, if obtained by the wrong people, could be turned into a bomb.
The mystery surrounding the 2,285 nuclear fuel elements -- each the size of a tennis ball -- believed to be missing was solved Tuesday, when the Forschungszentrum Juelich, the organization that ran a science reactor in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, issued a statement that all its nuclear material was accounted for.
For days, the unknown whereabouts of the radioactive material -- reportedly enough to make a nuclear bomb -- had kept Germans on edge.
In response to the written inquiry of a local Green Party politician, the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia said it didn't know where the nuclear material was.
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The Rheinische Post newspaper, citing official documents and a statement by the state's environment minister, reported they were dumped into Asse, a nuclear waste disposal site in northern Germany abused for several years by companies eager to get rid of toxic substances.
Sigmar Gabriel, a former German environment minister, in 2008 said Asse, which holds thousands of barrels of nuclear waste, is "the most problematic nuclear facility in all of Europe."
The opposition cried foul, saying the loss was a sign that the age of nuclear power should be ended as quickly as possible. The German government called the affected authorities to Berlin to report on the case.
On Tuesday, the organization running the science reactor said the fuel elements had been in Juelich all along, processed into mid-level nuclear waste and sealed in concrete Castor blocks. The science center said the government has had access to all this information and that all other material that made its way into Asse was green lighted and documented.
In other words -- much ado about nothing. Yet the affair underscores how charged the discussion is in Germany over nuclear power in the aftermath of the reactor crisis in Japan.
German Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen blasted the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia for unleashing what he called an information chaos.
"With their speculative comments," the local ministry officials "had only managed to worry the population," Roettgen was quoted by the Financial Times Germany newspaper as saying.
The affair comes as the main German parties seem to be trying to surpass each other in denouncing nuclear power, in moves that often undermine their own credibility.
At the height of the Japanese nuclear crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel decided to temporarily shut down seven of the country's oldest nuclear power reactors to test their safety and vowed to rethink Germany's overall energy strategy. It came just a few months after she had agreed, against severe public opposition, to extend the running times of the 17 reactors in Germany by an average of 12 years.
The Free Democrats, once the strongest backers of nuclear power, recently came forward saying that the oldest reactors should remain shut indefinitely.
