But last week, a couple of antinuclear activists managed to do a superb job at both.

FORBES: Garbage In, Anti-Nuclear Propaganda Out: The 14,000 Death Fukushima Lie

In Japan, which has few domestic sources of energy, new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has publicly reversed his predecessor's antinuclear stance.

WSJ: Upside: A Contrarian Play With Big Potential

The film "Friends After 3.11" takes a less intimate approach to the Fukushima aftermath, tracing the growing antinuclear movement among activists, academics and students in Japan.

WSJ: At the Berlin Film Festival, Three Visions of Japan After the Fukushima Disaster

All of which means that Schrder is likely to look after his old Veba friends, as Hartmann works to fend off the Greens' most onerous antinuclear demands.

FORBES: Ulrich Hartmann's second act

In few countries is nuclear energy the hot-button issue it is in Germany, where polls show some 70% of the populace opposes it, the legacy of a broad-based antinuclear movement that harks back to the 1986 Chernobyl accident.

WSJ: Germany to Forsake Its Nuclear Reactors

The fear of lack of control and dreadful consequences overwhelm any sense of the abstract economic benefits of nuclear power, and images of workers in protection suits and news of elevated radiation levels in food and water further fuel antinuclear sentiment on a global scale.

FORBES: Magazine Article