Europe

Europe

French nuclear waste train enters Germany, protests expected

25 November 2011 19:56 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A French train loaded with 150 tons of reprocessed nuclear waste crossed the border into Germany Friday, heading for its destination hundreds of kilometer away, a small northeastern town of Gorleben with a controversial radioactive waste storage facility, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

This was the last of 12 shipments of nuclear waste from French nuclear reactors to Gorleben in recent years, as the contract between the two sides are not expected to be extended after it expired this year.

The train’s 1,100-kilometre journey from France to Gorleben never proved easy, as thousands of protesters of the two countries have tried almost every means -- removing stones under the railways, clashing with police who came to protect the train, sitting on the train’s path--to delay and block the shipment.

German organizers said that they have prepared to "welcome" the train, and a large-scale demonstrations with tens of thousands people are expected at places near Gorleben.

Jochen Stay, a spokesman for the anti-nuclear group Ausgestrahlt (Irradiated), said that protesters and activist would "certainly take actions" to disturb the trains and roads, but they do not want to "escalate the situation."

"We hope the police can act sensibly and appropriately with people," he said. However, it always seemed hard for both sides to keep calm. On Thursday, one day after the train began its journey, police used water cannon and tear gas against a few hundred protesters near French border, as some demonstrators threw stones and smoke bombs at officers. There are several arrests afterwards.

As for Germany, both organizers and police predicted the number of protesters would be fewer than last year, when nearly 40,000 people turned out against the shipment. They attributed the less show-up to "changed political situation."

Last June, German parliament approved bills submitted by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, and the country decided to close its all 17 nuclear plants by 2022, marking Germany the first major industrial power abandoning atomic plants.