With a population of 84.5 million citizens the country of Germany has a substantial demand for energy (German Federal Statistical Office, 2022). Much of the electricity production within the nation is through fossil fuels, with 20.1% of power being produced through lignite production (German Federal Statistical Office, 2023). lignite—also referred to as brown coal—is a low grade coal. It is inefficient and emits more CO2 when compared to other types of fossil fuels (University of Calgary, n.d.). Germany has had a long standing dependance on lignite, with it being used in place of wood as a fuel type beginning as early as the 1600's (D-EITI, 2023). In 1985 Germany hit a historical record of extracting 433 million tonnes of lignite that year.

Lots of brown coal is mined throughout the country but one region located primarily in the middle of Germany is the Rhenish coalfields. These coal fields are home to forests, towns, and open-pit lignite mines among other things. Open-pit lignite mining causes many environmental changes, a specific one being the detrimental effects on ground and drinking water through Acid Mine Drainage (AMD). Through the mining process water is contaminated and released back into the surrounding environment which then drains into groundwater stocks. AMD is a geochemical flow which occurs when atmospheric oxygen reacts with sulphuric compounds unearthed during mining, producing acidic and metal-rich runoff which can be classified as grey water (Moncur, 2013). This process is an externality of lignite mining. In the Rhineland Coalfields the AMD is primarily caused by pyrite oxidation products including Fe³⁺ & Fe²⁺ ions along with acidic SO₄^2- & H₃O⁺ ions (Wisotzky, 2001). The process is closely related to a positive feedback cycle wherein green water from precipitation or blue water from returning groundwater dissolve pyritic Fe³⁺, Fe²⁺, SO₄^2-, H₃O⁺ ions into the water lowering the pH (Wisotzky, 2001). Then secondary minerals that are iron sulphate containing also begin to enter the water contributing to further contamination and acidification exacerbating the problem. Once this water has been contaminated it continues in its geochemical flow back into the ground water or streams where it can then mix with drinking water supplies (Gerwin et al., 2023). The state of the groundwater is often quite toxic, and in the mining districts southern areas, the water is extremely acidic, sometimes with a pH under 5 (Wisotzky, 2001). The process of AMD is a common externality of lignite mining in the Rhineland Coalfields and is detrimental to the groundwater stocks of the region.

The root cause of Acid Mine Drainage in the Rhineland Coalfields is the creation and exploitation of open-pit mines. This however does not explain the drivers behind the mining operations and the use for the lignite once mined. There are many potential societal activities responsible for Germany's desire for low grade brown coal. There are many economic factors contributing to the need for lignite, but the predominant driver is a political one. The majority of the German government (Infratest dimap, 2022, p.12) and populus (Amann, et al., 2022) have a biassed risk perception towards clean and green energy. An individual's risk perception is often irrational and biassed, and many Germans don't see clean and safe nuclear energy as worth the risk, despite the risk being a small one. The belief that nuclear power should not be used is deeply ingrained in German culture, and has been held by many Germans for a long time (Appunn, 2021b). Prior to October of 2022 the government of Germany has had a long standing plan to shut down and decommission their only 3 remaining nuclear reactors (Appunn, 2021b). This plan has since changed due to a sudden need for any energy source due to recent restrictions on natural gas imports from Russia. Germany had originally developed the plan to decommission all nuclear power by 2022 when the Green Party and Social Democrats won the 1998 elections (Appunn, 2021b). Opposition to nuclear power was one of the founding principles of The Green Party of Germany, and remains a main part of their platform today. Their founding was driven by large protests of approximately 200,000 people in 1979, and others prior (Appunn, 2021a). Additional insight to the German public's risk aversion to nuclear energy is demonstrated by a poll from 1998 where only an astounding 3% of respondents were in favour of continued development of Germany's nuclear power industry (Amann, et al., 2022). Many German citizens were so opposed to nuclear energy in the late 1900s due to accidents at 3 Mile Island and more importantly, Chernobyl, due to its close proximity to Germany. The government warned residents against eating fresh produce grown in gardens and suggested exchanging the sand in the play pits at playgrounds for fear of radioactive contamination (Appunn, 2016). This kept the dangers of nuclear energy at the forefront of concerns for the German people as it seemed so immediate. The fear of nuclear energy is very deeply rooted throughout German society and can even be seen in the rhetoric of the German government. The German Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) continuously refers to all nuclear energy as a "high-risk technology in Germany" (BASE, 2023) demonstrating their strong belief that all nuclear power is inherently dangerous. A further statement from BASE discusses the knee-jerk reaction to the Fukushima accident in Japan which was immediately followed by a "nuclear moratorium" (BASE, 2023). In March 2011 without much consideration or deliberation the so-called nuclear moratorium was put into place. This is evidently an emotional decision of the German government which was supported by the German people. Due to low seismic activity in Germany there is nearly no risk of an earthquake or tsunami posed to any of the nuclear reactors in Germany, making the comparison to Fukushima not ideal from a risk management perspective.

The culture of risk in Germany also plays a large role in public perception, as Europe and Germany tend to operate on a precautionary principle. This means a much more conservative approach is taken towards potential hazards to try to eliminate as much potential risk as possible. Even though Germany has set the remaining 3 power plants to shut down in April of 2023 it still needs to find a home for the remaining radioactive waste that will remain (BASE, 2023). The selection process to find a location to sequester such high-level nuclear waste (HLW) into deep geological formations is underway, and a survey was conducted in 2020 polling Germans on their trust in various steps of the site selection process (Seidl, et al., 2022). Across all 3 sample clusters, trust in the process degraded (Table 1). Especially illuminating is the 3rd cluster which is deemed risk-focused and comprises 42% of the ~5000 people sampled, who in the first stage accept the procedure with a 4.7/7 confidence which quickly degrades to a 1.9/5 in the last stage, demonstrating a large subset of the population is uncomfortable with the storage of nuclear waste. Furthermore the researchers had expected a benefit-oriented cluster, which was notably absent from the German population, again showing how deeply rooted the distrust and distaste for nuclear power is. Due to the risk perception and political views of the German people, they are heavily opposed to nuclear power, and with its phase-out underway they need to transition to other energies. Due to Europe as a whole having increasingly limited energy sources of only ~3% globally, one of Germany's few abundant alternatives is lignite, leading to increased mining activity (Bezdek, 2014).

To prevent Acid Mine Drainage in the Rhineland Coalfields lignite mining must be greatly decreased, which will not happen unless the German public accepts alternative energy sources to lignite. Seeing as the Green Party of Germany is currently in power, within the present coalition it would be advisable to recommend green alternatives. The majority of German energy is produced through renewable means (Figure 1) including wind turbines and solar energy (Appunn, et al., 2019). It would be inadvisable to reverse this progress by replacing lignite with yet another fossil fuel. As expected with the decommissioning of nuclear power its stark decline can also be seen (Figure 1). It is therefore proposed to replace the 117 terawatt hours of electricity from lignite (Appunn, et al., 2019) with predominantly nuclear power.

This solution would primarily be a regulatory approach requiring legislative action to reduce lignite use. This should begin with a reform of risk communication around nuclear energy. Governmental agencies need to stop fear-mongering and misrepresenting the risks of nuclear energy, such as BASE when it refers to it as a "high-risk technology" (BASE, 2023). Instead the German federal government should harness the political economy of risk and use it in favour of nuclear power. Seen in Figure 2 below is a comparison of multiple energy sources and their associated death rate per terawatt hour. This demonstrates the relative risk posed per unit of electricity produced, meaning for every one terawatt hour of Brown coal (lignite) based power 32.72 people die due to its impacts on average (Energy for Humanity, n.d.). Compared to the 0.03 people that die per one terawatt hour of nuclear energy produced (Energy for Humanity, n.d.). This is a drastically different narrative than the one the German government pushes, seeing as fossil fuels cause an estimated 7 million deaths yearly, while nuclear power is 350 times safer than coal (Energy for Humanity, n.d.). The safety of nuclear power needs to be effectively communicated to the German public. Perhaps a good way to begin the potential positive feedback loop of acceptance of nuclear power would be to push legislation, adding it to the school curriculum to teach children about its low risk levels. Additionally, one might want to run adverts on television to reach a wider demographic in addition to school children. With an increase in nuclear power usage, Germany would finally be able to transition away from its dependence on lignite and put a stop to AMD.