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Status: 02.11.2020 11:01 am
The loading of the ship’s wheels onto a train has begun. The six containers of nuclear waste will be brought from the port of Nordenham to the interim storage facility at the Biblis nuclear power plant.
Waste from German nuclear power plants that have been reprocessed in Sellafield, England is transported. Just hours after the “Pacific Grebe” freighter arrived with the nuclear waste in Nordenham (Wesermarsch district), a crane removed the first Beaver from the ship that morning. Slowly, he maneuvered the blue container through the air. A train with white shipping containers has been waiting at the dock for days. With this, the nuclear waste will be taken to the interim storage facility at the Hesse Biblis nuclear power plant. How long the full load will take is pure speculation, said Arno Zumbach, a spokesman for the Oldenburg police department, the NDR in Lower Saxony. As it stands, the weather is unlikely to have any effect on the use of the loader crane.
Nordenham-Hude railway line closed
The train initially travels from Midgard Harbor in Nordenham to Hude via a single track route. There it is decided whether to drive to Biblis via Delmenhorst and Osnabrück or to the destination via Oldenburg and Papenburg. According to the federal police, the two possible rail routes that the Castors could pass through Germany are insured. The railway line between Nordenham and Hude has been closed since this morning. The regional S-Bahn 4 will not operate indefinitely, a Nordwestbahn spokeswoman said. The company has established a replacement bus service between Nordenham and Hude. The federal police did not want to confirm, however, that the railway line is already closed to Castor transport. The reason for the failure was a technical malfunction, according to NDR 1 Lower Saxony.
VIDEO: Castor ship “Pacific Grebe” arrives in Nordenham (1 min)
Police expect protests along the route
Opponents of nuclear power demonstrated in Nordenham on Saturday. You want to continue accompanying the transport.
The Federal Police expect more protests and possible disruptive actions from opponents of nuclear energy along the railway line. They already had the weekend in Nordenham, Oldenburg, Göttingen and Bremen protested against the transport. According to police spokesman Zumbach, actions in Nordenham have been very peaceful so far. “Dealing with the meeting participants is friendly.” The “Stop Castor” alliance is against transport because there will be no final deposit of nuclear waste in Germany for the foreseeable future.
Hygiene concept for emergency services and dealing with protesters
The Oldenburg Police Department is in charge of ensuring Castor transport through Lower Saxony. In this, it has the support of the Federal Police, responsible for railway systems in Germany. So far, according to the Oldenburg Police Department, everything has gone according to plan. In view of the corona pandemic, there is a comprehensive hygiene concept to use. It is about protecting the emergency services against infection as well as dealing with the demonstration participants. “The health of everyone involved has the highest priority,” said the chief operating officer.
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Criticism of transportation during the corona pandemic
The return of nuclear waste from the Sellafield reprocessing plant is particularly controversial due to the corona pandemic. In addition to opponents of nuclear power, politicians and the police had also criticized the fact that such transportation was an additional burden at this time. The state of Lower Saxony had previously tried unsuccessfully to work towards a transport postponement by the federal government. The latter had refused to change the date again, but with reference to international agreements on the return of nuclear waste.
“The atomic age is about to end”
Svenja Schulze defended the decision to transport the wheels now despite Corona. (File image)
Germany has a contractual obligation to recover waste produced at local nuclear power plants. “We are responsible for the garbage that we cannot leave abroad,” Federal Minister of the Environment Svenja Schulze (SPD) told the newspapers of the Funke media group. Another postponement was also out of place for logistical and licensing reasons. He tried to appease the protesting opponents of nuclear power: “It used to be the big question of whether you are for or against nuclear power.” Today such a transport serves to “complete an atomic age, which fortunately for us is already near the end.”
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