A CONTROVERSIAL shipment of radioactive nuclear waste arrived at the northern German town of Gorleben yesterday despite massive protests by local people and green activists. More than loo demonstrators were wounded when police forcibly removed thousands of protesters from the 10-mile stretch of road between Dannenberg railway station and the shipment's final destination at Gorleben storage depot.
Police turned water cannon on the crowd blocking the road and engaged in running battles with groups of anarchists along the route. Eyewitnesses estimated that more than 10,000 people took part in yesterday's protest.
The six giant containers of waste from German nuclear power stations and a French reprocessing plant left the southern town of Walheim early on Monday. Protesters delayed the shipment by eight hours by sabotaging railway lines and cementing themselves to the track.
Police ordered the protesters at Dannenberg station to disperse early yesterday morning but the activists remained firm. Few resisted when they were hauled away by police but a small group of masked youths attacked police with stones and petrol bombs.
A convoy of trucks carrying the nuclear waste containers left Dannenberg shortly before noon, six hours later than planned. Lined by thousands of police officers in riot gear, the trucks inched along the road to Gorleben as each successive group of protesters was carried off or driven back by water cannon.
Local people accused the police of using unnecessary brutality by engaging in baton charges against unarmed demonstrators. But the police, who defused a small explosive device along the route before the convoy set off yesterday, insisted that force was needed to drive the shipment through.
About 30,000 police officers were deployed to protect the shipment on its journey from Walheim to Gorleben, at an estimated cost of DM66 million (£22.9 million). The police operation was the biggest in Germany's post-war history and the level of civil disobedience inspired by the shipment has raised questions about the future of nuclear power in Germany.
The prime minister of the local state of Lower Saxony, Mr Gerhard Schroeder, welcomed the success of the operation to transport the waste shipment to Gorleben. But he criticised southern states such as Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg for sending their nuclear waste north instead of storing it themselves.
Although the protests against the waste shipment were biggest near Gorleben, anti-nuclear activists staged events throughout Germany yesterday. The Greens, who are more popular in Germany than ever before, have demanded a referendum on nuclear power and there is little doubt that this week's massive protests have catapulted the issue back onto the political agenda in advance of next year's general election.
