[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
10,000 Germans protest against nuclear waste
10,000 Germans protest against nuclear waste
LUENEBURG, Germany, March 24 (Reuters) - More than 10,000
demonstrators gathered in the north German town of Lueneburg on
Saturday to protest against next week's resumption of nuclear waste
shipments from France back to Germany.
Police said the protest, in the town where the nuclear waste
transport will travel through, passed without any serious incidents.
France is due to start sending nuclear waste back to Germany on
Monday after treatment in its reprocessing plant in La Hague.
Shipments were stopped four years ago amid safety concerns.
The crowd, made up of young and old and families with children, waved
placards, blew whistles and yelled slogans.
Organisers said 16,000 attended the demonstration, while police put
the figure at around 10,000.
By the evening, many were still gathered in the town and pledged to
continue the protest into Sunday and Monday -- building on a wave of
anti-nuclear protests in recent days.
Protesters have come from across Germany, many with sleeping bags and
tents, a sign they are there for the long-haul.
"This is a fantastic turnout," said Wolfgang Emke, spokesman for the
protest organisers.
"There are more of us here than there were last time and it's an
encouraging sign of what's to come over the next few days."
CAMPS OF ACTIVISTS
Police on Friday broke up two camps of activists on private land near
the railway between Lueneburg and Dannenberg.
Last week, activists temporarily occupied a watchtower at the nuclear
waste dump in Gorleben, south of Hamburg, where the waste material is
to be stored.
A spokeswoman for the demonstrators said they planned to occupy 52
rail crossings in the 70-kilometre (44 miles) stretch between
Lueneburg and Dannenberg, the route along which the waste will be
transported.
Police expect the demonstrators to try to block the transports.
During the last shipments, activists and police fought running
battles in the fields at Gorleben.
The resumption of shipments has been a major headache for Germany's
anti-nuclear Greens party, junior partner in Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder's coalition.
The shipments are allowed under the agreement on long-term withdrawal
from nuclear power negotiated last year by Greens Environment
Minister Juergen Trittin, and the environmentalist party has urged
members to demonstrate peacefully.
Emke said the activists did not think they could stop the transports
but were out to make a point.
"We don't have any false hopes. We want to give a political signal
against this so-called withdrawal from nuclear power and put pressure
on the Greens from the grassroots," he said.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the German
internal intelligence agency, said around 1,000 violent left-wing
extremists had travelled to the demonstrations.
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100
Director, Technical Extension 2306
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service Fax:(714) 668-3149
ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc. E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Personal Website: http://sandyfl.nukeworker.net
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com
************************************************************************
You are currently subscribed to the Radsafe mailing list. To unsubscribe,
send an e-mail to Majordomo@list.vanderbilt.edu Put the text "unsubscribe
radsafe" (no quote marks) in the body of the e-mail, with no subject line.
------------------------------