[Onthebarricades] GERMANY: Massive anti-nuclear protests, November 2008

[global resistance roundup]

Anti-nuclear protests blockade route, delay train - some clashes, fires; 
protesters chain themselves to railways





http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3774426,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

08.11.2008
Protesters Delay Nuclear Waste's Return to Germany

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The nuclear waste left 
France on Friday

Thousands of anti-nuclear demonstrators were trying to obstruct a 
tightly guarded convoy of spent nuclear fuel on its way to a German 
storage facility.
Near the warehouse in Gorleben in northern German, where many tons of 
radioactive waste are stored, more than 6,000 protesters thronged roads 
on Saturday, Nov. 8, just before a protest rally.

In the south of Germany, other demonstrators flocked to railway tracks 
expected to be used by the freight train convoy when it arrived from a 
French waste-reprocessing plant at La Hague on the Atlantic coast.

Two men and a woman chained themselves to the rail track at the small 
border town of Berg. A police spokesman said it would be difficult to 
cut them free. Protesters said the train was waiting at Lauterbourg on 
the French side of the border.

Police expect more protests

Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The 
waste was delayed as police had to remove protesters from the train tracks
The anti-nuclear movement seeks the immediate closure of all nuclear 
power stations and believes that waste transport and storage is unsafe. 
Police said they expected protesters to try to block the convoy route 
through Germany.

Protests became violent in town of Wendland in Lower Saxony on Friday 
when some demonstrators threw bottles and firecrackers at the police and 
set fire to police barricades. They also reportedly smashed the windows 
of a police car and punctured its tires.

Police, however, don't expect the violence to continue.

"We're assuming that most of the local demonstrations will take place 
peacefully," a spokesman said.

Germany is studying whether to use an old saltmine near the warehouse in 
Gorleben as long-term storage for the waste.

Fuel from Germany's nuclear plants is routinely sent abroad for 
reprocessing. It is then returned to the Gorleben storage facility where 
German anti-nuclear protesters try to delay its arrival.

The convoy Saturday, carrying 17 tons of waste encapsulated in 100 tons 
of glass, was the 11th over the years to carry spent waste to the small 
town.

Some 16,000 German police were detailed to protect the convoy.






http://planetsave.com/blog/2008/11/10/protests-turn-violent-in-germany-as-train-loaded-with-nuclear-waste-rolls-through-countryside/

Protests Turn Violent in Germany as Train Loaded with Nuclear Waste 
Rolls Through Countryside [Updated w/ Video]
Written by Timothy B. Hurst
Published on November 10th, 2008

Posted in Action & Activism, Energy & Fuel, Nature & Conservation
Thousands of anti-nuclear campaigners have assembled along a train route 
in Germany to protest the annual convoy carrying tons of nuclear waste 
from France to a storage facility in northeastern Germany.

10
votesBuzz up!
In what is becoming an annual ritual of civil resistance and direct 
action in Germany , more than 15,000 anti-nuclear protesters turned out 
along the route to Gorleben on Sunday—twice the number at a similar 
protest at the site two years ago—in the largest and most violent 
anti-nuclear protest in Germany since 2001.
• » Read more on Action & Activism
The train is carrying spent nuclear fuel that was originally used in 
German power stations, turned into pellets at a factory in France and 
then returned to Germany for long-term storage. The cargo consists of 17 
tons of waste pellets encapsulated in 100 tons of insulating glass. It 
is the 11th trainload of waste to be taken from the retreatment facility 
in Normandy to the salt mines in Gorleben.
At the border between the two countries three German demonstrators 
blocked the train for more than 11 hours by chaining and cementing 
themselves to the track. Protesters also set barricades on railroad 
tracks on fire forcing police to use water cannons to extinguish them. 
As many as 16,000 police mobilized to protect the train throughout its 
three-day journey, which began in France on Friday. According to 
reports, several protesters and police were injured in the 
confrontation, but police gave no reports about the number of victims.
To the north, close to the waste facility, protesters defied a ban on 
demonstrations near the railway and invaded the line. Riot police used 
batons to disperse the crowd back into nearby woods.

The robust anti-nuclear movement in Germany seeks the immediate closure 
of all nuclear power stations. Demonstration organizers were pleased 
with the turnout at Gorleben. Jochen Stay, spokesman for the 
anti-nuclear group x-tausendmal quer, called it the “rebirth of the 
anti-nuclear movement in Germany.”
Although the German government has officially begun phasing out its 17 
nuclear power plants by 2020, Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the 
ambitious plan must be slowed if the country hopes to cut greenhouse gas 
emissions significantly.
The opposition Social Democrats have vowed to block any attempt to roll 
back the plans to phase-out nuclear power and will likely make the issue 
a centerpiece of their campaign in next year’s election.







http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3776272,00.html

Germany | 10.11.2008
Despite Hefty Protest, Nuclear Waste Train on Home Stretch

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Police forces had to 
remove nuclear protestors from the tracks

A train carrying spent radioactive fuel to a long-term storage site in 
Gorleben near Hamburg is set to embark on the last leg of its journey, 
after riot police clashed with hundreds of protesters on the weekend.
A shipment of spent radioactive fuel was prepared for the last stage of 
its trip to a long-term storage site in Gorleben as thousands of police 
protected the train against protestors.
The train carrying the waste from France arrived at Dannenberg terminal 
in Lower Saxony early Monday, Nov. 10, at 1:15 am CET with a 14-hour 
delay after protests tried several times to halt the transport, police said.

As during 10 previous shipments of waste to long-term storage in the 
small town south of Hamburg, protesters aimed to obstruct the freight train.

At Dannenberg, the 11 containers carrying the waste will be transferred 
to trucks which are to take them the final 20 kilometers (12 miles) to 
Gorleben.

Clashes with police

Riot police had clashed with 700 protesters Sunday in the North of 
Germany as the anti-nuclear movement tried to disrupt the train's journey.
Elsewhere, wiring and signal gear along German railway lines were set on 
fire. Though most of the attacks were anonymous, police said it was 
likely the sabotage was the work of anti-nuclear militants.
By early Sunday afternoon, the train, loaded with 17 tons of waste 
pellets encapsulated in 100 tons of insulating glass, had reached 
Goettingen in central Germany.
To the north, at Hitzacker, close to the waste warehouse, protesters 
defied a ban on demonstrations near the railway and invaded the line. 
Some tried to damage it, a police spokesman said.
Riot police using batons dispersed the crowd back into nearby woods. 
Protesters set fire to bales of straw on the rails, which were 
extinguished by police water-cannon.
A Lower Saxony state police spokesman said police had used force, as the 
protesters had used force.
Arson attacks blamed on extremists
Three deliberate fires on Saturday knocked out high-speed rail links 
between the capital Berlin and Hamburg.
Federal police said Sunday an anti-nuclear leaflet had been left at the 
scene of another fire the previous day, near Wiesbaden. At Kassel, 
central Germany, track wiring was destroyed in a fire Sunday, halting 
many passenger trains.
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: 
Protestors braved terrible weather to make their point
Protesters said that with 15,000 demonstrators waiting in cold and rain 
near Gorleben for the train, their anti-nuclear movement had surged up 
to a level of support not seen since 2001.
At Gorleben many tons of radioactive waste have been accumulated from 
German power stations after being sealed into glass pellets at a factory 
in France. Berlin plans to dump the waste long-term in an old salt-mine.
The anti-nuclear movement seeks the immediate closure of all nuclear 
power stations and has been upset at debate in Germany about extending 
the stations' operation in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions that 
cause global warming.
The issue has intensified in Germany after revelations that another 
salt-mine dump, near Wolfenbuettel, has developed leaks and cracks.
On Saturday, the freight train was delayed for about 12 hours by three 
militants who chained themselves to a lump of concrete under a track 
near the French border.
Police had to carefully dismantle the concrete to detach the trio, 
delaying the entire transport operation.






http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g35I36pjyLfDWvOq65T2R-OYNQXQ

Police crackdown on German nuclear waste train protests
Nov 9, 2008
BERLIN (AFP) — Police wielding truncheons beat back environmentalists 
Sunday trying to block a train carrying highly radioactive nuclear waste 
from western France to a dump in Germany, authorities said.
In the largest and most violent anti-nuclear protests since 2001 in 
Germany, activists set fire to barricades on the tracks in the north of 
the country, which police extinguished with water cannon.
Several protesters and police were injured in the confrontation, police 
said, without giving any numbers of victims.
Railroad crews scrambled to repair the damage overnight to allow the 
shipment of the 23 tonnes of treated, but still extremely toxic, nuclear 
waste to continue on to the Gorleben disposal centre.
The train had resumed its journey after being stopped for nearly 12 
hours Saturday near the Franco-German border by three protesters, German 
police said.
About 15,000 demonstrators rallied along the tracks, most of them in the 
Gorleben region, joined by a caravan of 300 tractors festooned with 
anti-nuclear banners.
Some 16,000 police were deployed across Germany to ensure the load 
reached the dump safely.
Anti-nuclear group x-tausendmal quer, which organised the 
demonstrations, argues that the shipments are dangerous and that Germany 
has not found any permanent solution for what to do with the waste from 
its nuclear reactors.
"This is a strong sign of the renaissance of the anti-nuclear movement," 
group spokesman Jochen Stay said of the weekend protests.
The organisation calls for the quick phase-out of the country's nuclear 
power plants.
By late Sunday, at least 200 anti-nuclear protesters continued to block 
access to the dump, having decided to keep up their sit-in until Monday, 
the earliest the convoy could arrive at the site, according to police.
The German government has approved plans to mothball the last of its 17 
reactors by about 2020.
But Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for slowing down the process 
over fears it will be impossible to slash greenhouse gas emissions 
without nuclear energy, which emits no carbon dioxide and produces a 
quarter of the country's electricity.
The opposition Greens and the far-left Die Linke party called on their 
members to join the protests.
Polls show most Germans oppose nuclear power but skyrocketing energy 
costs have sparked the calls to reconsider the phase-out.
The waste's odyssey began Friday at the nuclear waste retreatment plant 
at La Hague in Normandy. The trainload is the 11th of its kind to date.
The cargo was halted Saturday for half the day on the French side of the 
frontier at the station in Lauterbourg when three German militants, two 
men and a woman, jammed their arms into a block of concrete hidden under 
the track.
Police eventually managed to dislodge them.
About 500 demonstrators took part in a sit-in Saturday night at the 
site. Police reported finding fire accelerant and damage at signal 
stations which hindered other rail traffic.
The shipment was to reach the northern city of Lueneburg late Sunday, 12 
hours behind schedule.
The cargo will be offloaded onto trucks in the town of Dannenberg 50 
kilometre (30 miles) away and is expected to finish the last 20 
kilometres of the journey to Gorleben Monday.






http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/12/nuclear-protest-reawakens_n_143229.html

Nuclear Protest Reawakens In Germany
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Der Spiegel | November 12, 2008 09:45 AM
________________________________________


A shipment of radioactive waste from German nuclear plants arrived at a 
storage site on Tuesday morning after being delayed by fierce protests 
from nuclear activists. The demonstrations are partly in response to 
conservative calls for a rethink of the planned phaseout of nuclear 
power stations.
German riot police confronted activists along the route of the nuclear 
waste transport.
Eleven trucks carrying radioactive waste from German nuclear power 
stations arrived a day late at their destination, a storage site near 
Gorleben in northern Germany, early on Tuesday morning after thousands 
of anti-nuclear activists tried to stop the convoy.
The protests were far stronger than during the last nuclear shipment to 
Gorleben in 2006 and are a response to growing calls from the ruling 
conservative Christian Democrats and from German industry to reverse the 
decision to phase out the country's nuclear power stations in the next 
15 years.






http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,589782,00.html

11/11/2008

ANTI-NUCLEAR PROTEST REAWAKENS
Nuclear Waste Reaches German Storage Site Amid Fierce Protests
A shipment of radioactive waste from German nuclear plants arrived at a 
storage site on Tuesday morning after being delayed by fierce protests 
from nuclear activists. The demonstrations are partly in response to 
conservative calls for a rethink of the planned phaseout of nuclear 
power stations.


Getty Images
German riot police confronted activists along the route of the nuclear 
waste transport.
Eleven trucks carrying radioactive waste from German nuclear power 
stations arrived a day late at their destination, a storage site near 
Gorleben in northern Germany, early on Tuesday morning after thousands 
of anti-nuclear activists tried to stop the convoy.
The protests were far stronger than during the last nuclear shipment to 
Gorleben in 2006 and are a response to growing calls from the ruling 
conservative Christian Democrats and from German industry to reverse the 
decision to phase out the country's nuclear power stations in the next 
15 years.
At the weekend more than 15,000 people took part in the protests which 
involved holding up the trucks with sit-down demonstrations, blocking 
the route with tractors and chaining themselves to concrete obstacles 
placed in the road.







http://news.theage.com.au/world/police-break-up-german-nuclear-protest-20081111-5lw7.html

Police break up German nuclear protest
Simon Sturdee
November 11, 2008
Riot police began breaking up a human blockade of a radioactive waste 
disposal site in Germany's biggest anti-nuclear protests since 2001, 
German television reported.
Television pictures on Monday showed riot police in groups of four 
extracting and carrying away one-by-one some of the roughly 1,000 
demonstrators at the entrance to the Gorleben plant in northern Germany.
In a sign of the fierce popular opposition to nuclear power in Germany, 
the demonstrators were seeking to block the arrival of 11 trucks 
containing a total of 123 tonnes of radioactive waste.
The shipment, transported by train from western France since Friday, had 
already seen the biggest and most violent anti-nuclear protests for 
several years with around 16,000 police deployed.
Police had wielded truncheons and sprayed water cannon to put out 
barricades put on the train tracks and set alight by activists. Several 
protesters and police were injured.
The cargo had been halted Saturday for half the day on the French side 
of the border when three German militants - two men and a woman - jammed 
their arms into a block of concrete hidden under the track.
Once in Germany, around 15,000 demonstrators rallied along the tracks to 
block the 11 containers, joined by a caravan of 300 tractors festooned 
with anti-nuclear banners.
The train carrying the waste, which left a retreatment centre in western 
France on Friday, made it to Dannenberg between Hamburg and Berlin - 
almost 14 and a half hours late - in the early hours of Monday morning, 
police said.
There it was transferred onto lorries on Monday morning and was due to 
embark on the final 20-kilometre journey by road - but not until the 
blockade at Gorleben had been cleared, television channel N-TV said.
There were also several dozen tractors in place to block the trucks' two 
possible routes. Greenpeace said that 12 of its activists had also 
chained themselves to the trucks.
Environmental pressure group BI Umweltschutz said the containers were 
emitting stronger radioactive rays than is allowed on public roads, 
calling it "irresponsible" to subject police and demonstrators to such a 
health risk.
The German government has approved plans to mothball the last of its 17 
reactors by about 2020, and opinion polls show a majority of people in 
Western Europe's most populous country oppose nuclear power.
But Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for the process to be slowed 
down over fears it will be impossible to slash greenhouse gas emissions 
without nuclear energy, which produces a quarter of the country's 
electricity.
Skyrocketing energy costs have also sparked the calls to reconsider the 
phase-out.
Anti-nuclear group X-tausendmal quer, which organised the 
demonstrations, argues that the shipments are dangerous and that Germany 
has not found any permanent solution for what to do with the waste from 
its nuclear reactors.
"This is a strong sign of the renaissance of the anti-nuclear movement," 
group spokesman Jochen Stay said of the weekend protests.
Many of the protesters outside Gorleben have been there all weekend and 
have set up camp in chilly and damp conditions outside the site between 
Hamburg and Berlin.
"We haven't had a shower and there is a real camp atmosphere. But we are 
all on good form," one young female protester said on N-TV.






http://rawstory.com/news/2008/German_riot_police_disband_nuke_protest_1110.html

German riot police disband nuke protest
Agence France-Presse
Published: Monday November 10, 2008

BERLIN (AFP) – German riot police tried Monday to break up a human 
blockade of a radioactive waste disposal site in the country's biggest 
anti-nuclear protests since 2001.

In a sign of the fierce popular opposition to nuclear power in Germany, 
security forces in riot gear began extracting and carrying one-by-one 
some of the roughly 1,000 demonstrators away from the entrance to the 
Gorleben waste dump in northern Germany, a police spokesman said.

The demonstrators, many of whom had braved cold, damp conditions to camp 
outside the site for several days, were seeking to block the arrival at 
the site of 11 trucks containing between them 123 tonnes of radioactive 
waste.

The shipment had already seen the biggest and most violent anti-nuclear 
protests for years as it made its way by train from France over the 
weekend, with 16,000 police deployed against some 15,000 protestors 
along the route.

Police had used truncheons to disperse protesters and used water cannon 
to put out barricades set on fire by activists.

As a result the train, which left a retreatment centre in western France 
on Friday, made it to the town of Dannenberg almost 14-and-a-half hours 
behind schedule, police said.

There it was transferred onto lorries on Monday morning and was due to 
embark on the final 20-kilometre (12-mile) journey by road -- but not 
until the blockade at Gorleben had been cleared, authorities said.

Police said they expected this to happen by the end of the day but the 
protesters were not leaving without a struggle, with activists doing 
everything they could to hinder the authorities.

A few kilometres from Gorleben, activists built two tall cement 
pyramids, chaining four demonstrators to each, and parked 37 tractors 
along the route.

"We will stick it out," one young female protester said on rolling news 
channel N-TV.

Environmentalist groups have for years demanded that the shipments be 
stopped due to possible radiation leaks and security risks. In March 
2001, 30,000 police were deployed to halt protests in the largest single 
security operation in postwar Germany.

Environmental pressure group BI Umweltschutz said Monday that the 
containers were emitting stronger radioactive rays than is allowed on 
public roads, calling it "irresponsible" to subject police and 
demonstrators to such a health risk.

The German government has approved plans to mothball the last of its 17 
reactors by about 2020, and polls show a majority of people in Western 
Europe's most populous country oppose nuclear power.

But Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for the process to be slowed 
down over fears it will be impossible to slash greenhouse gas emissions 
without nuclear energy, which produces a quarter of the country's 
electricity.

Skyrocketing energy costs have also sparked the calls to reconsider the 
phase-out.

The head of Germany's Green Party, which was in government with Gerhard 
Schroeder's SPD when the decision to phase out nuclear energy was taken, 
said that opposition to nuclear power had been less visible in recent times.

"But when it comes to it, it can be mobilised," Reinhard Buetikofer said.

"The peaceful protest by 16,000 people on Saturday and the numerous 
actions along the route have shown that people are firmly opposed to 
nuclear power," the head of the Greens' parliamentary fraction Volker 
Beck said.

The lawmaker called the protests a "huge success."






http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3780102,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

Environment | 11.11.2008
Nuclear Transport Protests Particularly Violent, Say Police

Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The convoy of 11 
nuclear waste containers arrived in Gorleben
A train carrying nuclear waste has finally reached its destination in 
Gorleben, Germany, where the radioactive material is to be stored. But 
it was a long, eventful trip.

Thousands of protesters held up a truck convoy carrying nuclear waste in 
Germany Monday, repeatedly invading a 20-kilometer (12-mile) road 
leading to a secure storage warehouse.
Police said the protests, the biggest since 2001 during the waste 
transport operations, which take place every few months, were also more 
violent than usual.
Protesters had tried to undermine a railway, seize a truck and shot 
signalling flares at a police helicopter.
Federal police commander Thomas Osterroth said, "A few of them are 
willing to be very violent."
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Many 
protestors were peaceful, but police said some were prepared for violence
The 10,000 police at the scene were ordered to clear the road before the 
trucks departed from a railway freight yard carrying the 11 containers. 
They were bound for the storage site at Gorleben where tons of similar 
waste are already guarded round the clock.
The big containers are a new type, code-named TN 85, with shells 
designed to withstand greater heat from the high-grade waste, the 
remains of uranium fuel rods used in German nuclear power stations.
Greenpeace claims containers are dangerous
The environmentalist group Greenpeace charged that neutron radiation 
from the containers was 40 percent greater. State regulators rejected 
this, saying their tests showed the radiation remained within the 
legally safe limit.
About 1,000 protesters who blocked the entrance to the warehouse were 
carried away one by one by riot police.
Police said they faced a major challenge removing eight demonstrators 
who had chained themselves to concrete blocks near the site.
On Saturday it took 12 hours to drill out concrete and remove three 
protesters who chained themselves to a railtrack on the French border 
before the waste passed on a train.
The train carried the waste from a reprocessing plant La Hague, France 
to a railhead in the town of Dannenberg, close to Gorleben.
Nuclear energy debate in Germany
About 15,000 protesters defied a storm to camp out near Gorleben. They 
said the large turnout was prompted by debate in Germany about returning 
to nuclear power for the sake of reduced carbon-dioxide emissions.
The protesters, who reject nuclear power as unsafe, aim to draw 
attention to the issue by disrupting the convoys. Under legislation, 
Germany is to close all its nuclear power plants within the next 15 years.
The German government has said little about the protests. But Dieter 
Althaus, premier of Thuringia state, said Monday the protesters were 
breaching a national consensus to end nuclear power and store away the 
waste.

DPA news agency (kjb)







http://thenews.jang.com.pk/updates.asp?id=59710

Thousands protest against France nuclear waste train Updated at: 2030 
PST, Sunday, November 09, 2008 PARIS: Thousands of protesters took part 
Saturday in a demonstration at a nuclear waste disposal centre in 
northern Germany where a trainload of treated waste is due to arrive 
from France next week.

Police put the number at the Gorleben site at 14,000 with the organisers 
claiming 16,000 environmentalists had turned out, twice the number at a 
similar protest at the site two years ago.

The train, transporting 123 tonnes of waste, left western France Friday 
and made its way Saturday through the east of the country, where two 
demonstrations greeted its passage.

It is the 11th such trainload of waste to be taken from the retreatment 
plant at La Hague in Normandy to Germany and is due to arrive Monday.

At the border between the two countries three German demonstrators 
blocked the train by chaining themselves to the track, police said.

The high turnout at Gorleben signalled the "rebirth of the anti-nuclear 
movement in Germany," said Jochen Stay, spokesman for the organisers of 
the demonstration.

About 10,000 German police officers have been mobilised to protect the 
train. The waste will be taken by road for the final 20 kilometres (12 
miles) from Dannenberg to Gorleben, about 200 kilometres (120) northwest 
of Berlin.







http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/11/09/europe/EU-Germany-Nuclear-Waste.php

Protesters delay nuclear transport to Germany

The Associated Press
Published: November 9, 2008

BERLIN: A disputed shipment of reprocessed nuclear waste has reached 
Germany 12 hours behind schedule after anti-nuclear demonstrators 
chained themselves to railroad tracks along the route.
German police say some 1,000 people were demonstrating Sunday along the 
route of the 11 atomic waste containers as they headed to the Goerleben 
storage site in northern Germany.
The containers will be transferred from the train to trucks for the 
final few miles (kilometers) to the site. They are expected to arrive 
Monday. Thousands of police are on hand to secure passage of the containers.
Spent fuel from Germany's nuclear power plants is sent each year to 
France and returned reprocessed to the site. Goerleben is a traditional 
focus of anti-nuclear protests.






http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/240736,german-nuclear-waste-train-enters-germany-after-protestor-removed.html

German nuclear waste train enters Germany after protestor removed
Posted : Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:24:15 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Europe (World)

Woerth - Police early Sunday ended an 11-hour protest blockade that held 
up atightly-guarded rail convoy of spent nuclear fuel, freeing the train 
to enter Germany on its way to a waste dump. The waste train had 
beenwaiting nearby at Lauterbourg, France.
A spokesman for German police said officers had been able to remove the 
last of three demonstrators who had chained themselves to the tracks by 
embedding their arms into a huge lump of concrete under the track.
Earlier, police had managed to drill away enough of the concrete to 
detach one protester's bonds at the small border town of Berg. Police 
said they had to be careful not to harm the protesters.
A federal police spokesman said the removal of one protester's bonds 
enabled police to understand how the other two had secured themselves.
German rail officials would determine whether the tracks needed to be 
repaired after the blockade.
The train had originally been expected at 1230 GMT Saturday in Woerth, 
where the French locomotive was to have been changed out for a German 
locomotive. The transport began Friday evening in France.
The convoy is headed to the warehouse in Gorleben in the northern German 
countryside, where many tons of radioactive waste are stored. Some 
14,500 demonstrators gathered there Saturday to protest, police said.
The anti-nuclear movement seeks the immediate closure of all nuclear 
power stations and believes that waste transport and storage is unsafe.
Police expect picketers to try forcibly to block the convoy route 
through Germany.
Germany is studying whether to use an old salt mine near the warehouse 
in Gorleben as long-term storage for the waste, which originated in 
German power stations.
The issue has become controversial after revelations that another salt 
mine dump, near Wolfenbuettel, has developed leaks and cracks.
The convoy Saturday, carrying 17 tons of waste encapsulated in 100 tons 
of glass, was the 11th over the years to carry spent waste to the small 
town. Each shipment has faced fierce demonstrations.
More than 16,000 German police were detailed to protect the convoy.
Sabotage attacks disrupted high-speed passenger rail services Saturday 
in both France and Germany. There were no claims of responsibility, but 
similar attacks have coincided with waste shipments in the past.
Police in Germany said they could not rule out a link between three 
fires in signalling equipment on the high-speed line between Hamburg and 
Berlin and the protests, but there were no clues as to who the attackers 
had been.
German bullet trains had to be diverted to another route.
Metal pipes placed atop overhead power-supply lines in northern France 
crippled high-speed rail transport between Paris and other European 
cities, rail company SNCF said.
The French railway network management company RFF said the incident was 
very likely to be "pure vandalism."
An RFF spokesman said there was no connection to the transportation of 
nuclear waste through northern France.







http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/240717,extra-detaching-chained-german-protesters-proves-long-job.html

EXTRA: Detaching chained German protesters proves long job
Posted : Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:12:42 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Europe (World)

Berlin - Separating three protesters from a German railtrack was slow 
work Saturday for a team of police after the anti-nuclear activists used 
an ingenious method to lock themselves in place. During the morning, the 
two men and a woman fixed their hands and arms inside tubes inside a 
huge lump of concrete under the track, according to fellow protesters.
A trainload of nuclear waste was unable to pass along the line. 
Obstructing tracks is one way the anti-nuclear movement shows its 
opposition to the transport of waste.
After nightfall, police said they had drilled away enough of the 
concrete to detach one protester's bonds at the small border town of 
Berg. Police said they had to be careful not to harm the protesters.
The waste train was meanwhile waiting nearby at Lauterbourg, France, at 
least four hours late.
A federal police spokesman said the removal of one protester's bonds 
enabled police to understand how the other two had secured themselves. 
This raised the chances the blockade could be broken within a few more 
hours.







http://www.activistmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=952&Itemid=143

14,000 Protest Nuclear Waste Shipment in Germany

Written by Al Jazeera
Sunday, 09 November 2008

Hundreds of anti-nuclear demonstrators at a waste storage plant in 
northern Germany are preparing to peacefully protest against the 
delivery of the spent fuel to the site.
About 23 tons of nuclear waste are set to be delivered to the Gorleben 
plant by truck on Monday, after being transferred from a train which 
began its journey in France.
The train has already been held up by environmental protesters during 
its journey through Normandy, Bavaria and Lower Saxony.
Three German demonstrators stopped the train for 12 hours on Saturday by 
jamming their arms into a block of concrete hidden under the track at 
Lauterborg station, on the French side of the border, German police said.
The train left for Wuerzburg in Bavaria in southern Germany after police 
managed to dislodge the protesters on Saturday evening.
"This action was prepared, we shall conduct an inquiry," Joerg Zenner of 
the German police told German television.
Hundreds of protesters have attempted to block the line at several 
points. In one incident, demonstrators set fire to barricades on the track.
Large protest
On Saturday, thousands of people demonstrated near the nuclear waste 
disposal centre at Gorleben.
Wolfgang Ehmke, a spokeman for the People's Initiative for Ecological 
Protection, said that the group had protested for 31 years against 
nuclear waste being stored in Gorleben.
"Scientists say it is very dangerous to have a plant here, as the soil 
stock is in contact with water," he told Al Jazeera on Sunday.
"The government originally wanted to stop the production of nuclear 
energy, but the nuclear industry wants to carry on. Angela Merkel 
[Germany's prime minister] thus wants the industry to go on, although 
the opposition Social Democrats want to put all this to a stop.
"The demonstration here yesterday was a good day. We were supported by 
the Social Democrats, the Green party and the Socialists - we are very 
proud because we now know that we belong to the political mainstream."
bout 14,000 demonstrators converged on the site, police said, with 
protest organisers saying that 16,000 people had turned out.
About 500 demonstrators took part in an overnight sit-in at the site, 
pledging to protest when the waste arrives on Monday.
Spent fuel from Germany's nuclear power plants is sent each year to 
France and Britain for reprocessing and then is returned to the Gorleben 
site.
The waste consignment is the 11th this year to be transported from La 
Hague to Germany.
In 2003, the German government set a two-decade timetable for closing 
the country's nuclear power plants.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies







http://www.breitbart.com/image.php?id=iafp081110183755.ymcwxapsp1&show_article=1

Environmentalists block a road in protest against nuclear power

Environmentalists block a road in protest against nuclear power in 
Grippel, northwestern Germany. German riot police tried Monday to break 
up a human blockade of a radioactive waste disposal site in the 
country's biggest anti-nuclear protests since 2001.







http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/stories/2008/11/10/12437f6f53b2

Nuclear waste train delayed by protests
Updated at 2:36pm on 10 November 2008
Police have beaten back protesters trying to block a train carrying 
radioactive nuclear waste from western France to a dump in Germany.
The demonstration is described as the largest and most violent 
anti-nuclear protest in Germany since 2001.
Barricades on railway tracks in northern Germany were set on fire on 
Saturday. Police used water cannon to extinguish them.
Railroad crews have been repairing the damage overnight to allow the 
shipment of 23 tonnes of nuclear waste to continue to the Gorleben 
disposal centre.
German police say the train was stopped for nearly 12 hours near the 
Franco-German border.
About 15,000 demonstrators rallied along the tracks, mostly in the 
Gorleben region.
Eleventh transport
The consignment left a nuclear waste retreatment plant at La Hague in 
Normandy on Friday. The load is the 11th of its kind to date.
The cargo will be loaded on to trucks in the town of Dannenberg and is 
expected to finish the last 20km of the journey to Gorleben on Monday.
About 16,000 police were deployed across Germany to ensure the load 
reached the dump safely.