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Status: 04.11.2020 9:57 pm
The Castor transport arrived at the interim storage facility of the closed Biblis nuclear power plant on Wednesday: the train had passed several train stations in southern Lower Saxony overnight.
According to a police spokeswoman, the train arrived at the site of the Hessian nuclear power plant around 10 am About two dozen activists had previously demonstrated in the vicinity of the Biblis train station. According to the Federal Police, several thousand agents had secured the entire railway line. Everything passed in silence, a spokeswoman said. At Biblis, nuclear waste will be deposited in the interim storage facility until a German deposit is available.
Lies criticizes protests against nuclear transport
At the Göttingen train station, 15 opponents of nuclear power protested against transport on Wednesday morning, NDR 1 Lower Saxony reported. For security reasons and because of Corona, the Castor should not have started, according to the Göttingen anti-nuclear initiative. Lower Saxony Environment Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) criticized the protests along the route. Eventually, it was decided to phase out nuclear power and Germany was forced to recover German nuclear waste from the British reprocessing plant at Sellafield.
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The federal police warned against entering the tracks
In Germany, this is the first major repatriation of nuclear waste in nine years. In the past, Castor transports were often accompanied by large protests with roadblocks. Federal police had urgently warned against entering the rail and track systems. Because the path to a train stop can be up to 1,000 meters. In addition, there is a risk of deadly electric shock in the area of overhead lines, even without touching them. A distance of 1.5 meters is sufficient for this.
Activists believe that transportation is pointless and very dangerous
Nuclear opponents had announced a vigil at Biblis. “Highly radioactive nuclear waste is not only shipped as an invisible ghost ship across the German Inlet, but is now also shipped on its dangerous journey without prior notification to affected rail travelers and residents of the transport route.” said Herbert Würth of the “Stop Castor” alliance. “This fossil nuclear policy à la ‘out of sight and out of mind’ must finally end.” The Federal Association of Citizen Initiatives for the Protection of the Environment (BBU) criticized the fact that there is no final deposit of nuclear waste in sight in Germany for the foreseeable future. However, nuclear waste continues to be produced in nuclear power plants and uranium factories. “Demonstrations against the shipment of nuclear waste are and will remain imperative,” said BBU board member Udo Buchholz.
Criticism of transportation during the corona pandemic
The return of nuclear waste from the Sellafield reprocessing plant due to the corona pandemic is particularly controversial. 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 to get the federal government to postpone transport. He had refused to change the date again with reference to international agreements on the return of nuclear waste. According to the operations department, a comprehensive hygiene concept applied to the police, also when dealing with the demonstration participants.
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