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As Germany faces a new blockade, according to information from ntv.de, a Castor transport is supposed to travel 500 kilometers through the republic. Insists the Ministry of the Interior and Environment. The police must expect resistance.
It is not often that Lower Saxony Interior Minister Boris Pistorius writes a kind of petition letter to his official colleague at the federal level, Horst Seehofer. These days the time had come. In the letter, the Social Democrat asked the CSU politician to postpone the transport of six Castor containers with radioactive waste from the British Sellafield reprocessing plant to the Biblis interim storage facility in southern Hesse. The corona pandemic makes it more difficult, which is guaranteed even in normal times by a large police force, to secure the route of several hundred kilometers, because now a hygiene concept must also be adhered to.
In March, the Federal Ministry of the Interior described the police operation as irresponsible and postponed the transfer of the boats indefinitely. At the moment, more than 1000 police officers in Germany have become ill from Covid or are in quarantine. From the point of view of the Police Union (GdP), the situation has not changed since the spring. If his colleagues are expected to implement the crown protection measures in public spaces, then it is impossible to accompany a nuclear transport “through Germany”, says Federal Vice President of the GdP, Jörg Radek ntv.de. The forces that are on the road along the route could not be “switched off at the same time for protection against infection.”
But the Seehofer house, like the Federal Ministry for the Environment, insisted on transportation. In Britain there are still 20 Castor containers with highly radioactive waste from Germany, a spokesman for the environment department said on request. The withdrawal is regulated “in the private sector, but also by international and EU law”. “The obligation to carry out such transports has existed for some time, independent of Brexit, and stems from the fact that the fuel elements of German nuclear power plants have been reprocessed.” The required shipping permit for six containers expires on December 31, 2020. The federal government is monitoring “the current infection situation very carefully and is coordinating closely with the federal states.”
“The British have no sign that transport will not take place”
A spokesman for the Interior Ministry now told our editorial team: “Nuclear transport will take place this fall as planned.” The federal government and the states concerned “agreed” on this. The federal police have developed a hygiene concept with the participation of their doctors on duty. Officials would be screened for a possible Covid 19 disease prior to deployment. In addition, the usual rules of distance and hygiene would apply. “In principle, no more than five police officers are deployed per emergency vehicle.” Unlike usual, law enforcement officers only stayed in individual rooms.
Preparations are in full swing in Lower Saxony and Hesse. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry in Wiesbaden spoke of an “additional challenge” for the police in view of the infection situation and “the intensive deployment of force to close the gap on the A49”. It was not until Monday morning that self-proclaimed environmental activists cordoned off three motorway bridges in the Rhine-Main area to protest against the clearing of a forest, which is planned due to the widening of the A49. The law enforcement agency was able to participate in Castor transportation security, the spokesperson said. The police headquarters in southern Hesse had already trained a staff in September 2019. The officers have respiratory masks, protective goggles and disinfectants at their disposal. “A sufficient amount of personal protective equipment is guaranteed both locally and centrally.”
It is not known when the Castor transport will arrive in Germany. According to Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service (GNS), which belongs to the four major power plant operators PreussenElektra, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall, the arrival in Germany is imminent. “The British have no sign from Germany that the transport will not take place,” said GNS spokesman Michael Köbl ntv.de. Preparations were underway, the wheels were about to be shipped or were already loaded. Another postponement is possible, even beyond December 31. However, German authorities had been preparing for the transport of the vessels this fall for weeks.
“I don’t know if there will be sittings”
According to information from the “Stop Castor” alliance, the containers have already been loaded onto a ship in England. The crossing into Germany takes three and a half days, said a spokeswoman for the movement. The controversial cargo could arrive Friday night.
First, the locked nuclear waste is transported by ship to Nordenham in Lower Saxony and then only by train, probably via Bremen, to the decommissioned Biblis nuclear power plant. The Hessian administrative court had rejected a lawsuit by environmentalists against storage. There is considerable public interest in storing reprocessed nuclear fuel in Germany as soon as possible. Hessian Environment Minister Priska Hinz of the Greens said: “I warn against pinching now and I say that we can still find a lot of arguments why they cannot go back.”
Security authorities expect peaceful protests, but also fear that radical opponents of nuclear energy will not shy away from violence and carry out attacks or sabotage against railway lines. Experience has shown that tens of thousands of police secure Castoren transports. Even now, hundreds are ready again, as it was called in security circles. The antinuclear scene has been mobile on the internet for weeks. On the website of the “Stop Castor” alliance, it is said that the protest “will be colorful and diverse and will take different forms.” Vigils, rallies, “small group activities and joint activities” are planned. Participants must ensure that “we do not endanger each other.”
“We call for responsible protest against irresponsible nuclear transports,” said the spokeswoman for “Stop Castor”. The federal government may have made a deliberate decision to search for the ships now. Because the situation of the crown has not changed compared to March. “I don’t know if there will be sittings.” If the police take action against him, it is his business. “We keep the distance of 1.5 meters.” It is a matter of conscience. You can see the compulsions of the pandemic, but also know: “The storage of the containers in Biblis is like a dead end from which you can no longer get out.”
