Sharper watch on nuclear trains

by Diet Simon

After a nuclear waste train ran over and killed the French activist Sébastien Briat nearly seven weeks ago, such trains are under sharper observation, writes the leftwing newspaper, Neues Deutschland. Many environment campaigners are asking themselves whether such an accident could also happen in Germany and what sort of inhibition threshold there might be for careless and inconsiderate driving of such trains.

The paper, which was the official mouthpiece of the communist party in former East Germany, picked up on German IndyMedia reporting on a nuclear train than ran last Wednesday (15th Dec). http://germany.indymedia.org/2004/12/101896.shtml

It took four Castor caskets of waste from the shut down Stade power station near Hamburg to the plutonium factory at La Hague in Normandy, northern France, a run of several thousand kilometres through the German states of Lower Saxony, North-Rhine Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and then France.

At several locations anti-nuclear activists protested against the radioactive cargo. In a number of places they were even able to stop it.

The activists claim to have halted the train for two hours near Buchholz (Nordheide) on Wednesday morning. They say the train raced at 50 to 60 kmh into a “barricade” of logs and branches. It had stopped only after passing the obstacle.

This although the activists had thrown “fireworks” on to the track to warn the locomotive driver, the group wrote on “Indymedia”. A second group had drawn attention to the barrier with electric torches and banners.

“We are enraged and worried that yet again a Castor transport just keeps going despite alerts,” says their report.

In response to several attempts to get a comment, writes Neues Deutschland, the spokesman of the Federal Border Police (BGS) in Hamburg was still saying on Thursday that this had been a “freight train”. Only on Friday the BGS stated that the “freight train” stopped near Tostedt had carried four Castors with highly radioactive waste.

According to the BGS the safety of the caskets was not endangered. The thickest branch on the tracks had been only 4 cm across, said a BGS spokesman.

In the Mahndorf district of the town they placed grave candles on the rails and the demonstrators themselves lined up alongside the track. After an accompanying helicopter discovered them, the locomotive driver was made to stop his train immediately.

Up to this point the police and activist stories basically tally.

The forced stop will have consequences for the activists from Bremen. They are under investigation for alleged dangerous interference with rail traffic.

Participants in a vigil in Osnabrück reported that the train to La Hague had sped through the unsecured station. But two hours beforehand a helicopter was circling over the city and watching the railway line.

There were also protests and vigils against nuclear waste transportation at the stations in Münster-Hiltrup, Hamm and Waltrop. Police and border police were using several helicopters.

Castor transports with spent fuel rods from power stations for reprocessing in France and England are due to continue to mid-2005, while return transports to Gorleben and Ahaus for interim storage are to continue for several years more.

It’s to be assumed, writes Neues Deutschland, that the nuclear industry and politicians wat these transports to stir as little public attention as possible.

A “risky” style of driving that is less concerned that up to now by injured or even dead demonstrators runs counter to that aim, writes the paper’s Reimar Paul.

On the other hand, it adds, as in the past the police will do all they can to get these transports to their destination within the allocated time windows.

“That can mean a higher speed on parts of the route and the risk of serious accidents if there are protests.”

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