[ad_1]
Status: 03.11.2020 9:09 pm
The Castor transport to the interim storage facility at the Biblis nuclear power plant is underway: the train left Nordenham on Tuesday night around 7:50 pm On Wednesday morning they await you in southern Hesse .
Everything went according to schedule, a federal police spokesman told the NDR in Lower Saxony. On the train, which is more than 600 meters long, are six Castor containers with German nuclear waste from the reprocessing plant in Sellafield, England. According to the Federal Police, the route to Biblis in Hesse is largely fully supervised. Several thousand federal and state police forces are in action. It is about transport safety as well as the safety of protesters who may be on the railway, the spokesman said. Because this train “weighs several hundred tons.” The Federal Police do not expect big protests. But be prepared for any scenario, the spokesperson said.
The Federal Police will decide on the route at short notice.
The Castor transport will initially travel from the port of Midgard in Nordenham to Hude via a single track route. “Behind Hude it will be decided which routes will remain involved,” the police spokesman said. The Federal Police will decide at short notice which of the different routes the train will take. The train will travel at an average speed of 50 km / h to the interim storage facility at the disused Biblis nuclear power plant. 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.
Activists believe that transportation is pointless and very dangerous
Opponents of nuclear power have announced protests at various locations along potential transportation routes. There should be vigils and rallies on Tuesday nights in Bremen, Oldenburg, Göttingen, Münster, Cologne and Biblis, among others. Opponents of nuclear power criticize the fact that there is no final deposit of nuclear waste in sight in Germany for the foreseeable future. However, nuclear waste will continue to be produced at nuclear power plants and uranium factories, according to the Federal Association of Citizen Initiatives for Environmental Protection (BBU). “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 applies to the police, also when it comes to demonstration participants.
More information
