POLICE USED water cannon and pepper spray yesterday to move protesters blocking the transport of nuclear waste to a provisional storage facility.
The train, carrying 123 tonnes of waste, was 10 hours behind schedule as it neared its final destination, the central German town of Gorleben. Demonstrations escalated in the afternoon when protesters covered an armoured vehicle with tar and set it alight.
“After a relatively calm start yesterday things have escalated and, consequentially we are intervening to arrest violent protesters,” said Matthias Menge, spokesman for the federal police.
One protester, Christoph, told German television that the woods around the nuclear storage facility were “cloudy with tear gas”.
Police dragged protesters away before they could sabotage train tracks leading to the final destination. After failing to stop the transport, en route from the La Hague waste reprocessing facility in France, demonstrators moved to block all roads leading to the Gorleben facility ahead of the final leg of the waste’s journey by road.
On Saturday, tens of thousands gathered in nearby Dannenberg to signal their opposition to the transport, the 11th of its kind. While organisers said 50,000 people participated, police spoke of 20,000.
The transport of nuclear waste is a regular cause of protest in Germany. At present the waste is stored in above-ground temporary facilities around the country.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has reversed the plan by an earlier government to shut down nuclear plants by 2020. It has also ordered a new investigation into the suitability of the salt mines under Gorleben as a long-term storage facility.