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FoE GERMANY PROTESTS GORLEBEN NUCLEAR WASTE TRANSPORTS

"Siege" is the only word to sum up what happened in Gorleben, Germany at the end of March. An army of riot police was spread along the railway route between Dannenberg and Gorleben, ready to force nuclear waste transports into a temporary storage facility. And for the first time in three years, nuclear waste "Castors" found their way to Gorleben.

The first Green environmental minister of Germany, Jürgen Trittin, defended these transports as safe and necessary, although he had protested against the last transports three years ago. Now he argued that Germany had to take back the waste, which came from La Hague, France, because it would be unacceptable to use France as Germany´s nuclear waste bin.

BUND/FoE Germany also argues that Germany has to take care of its own nuclear waste. But Trittin ignored the real consequence of the renewed nuclear waste shipments to Gorleben: an international tourism in nuclear waste. The waste transport to Gorleben was France´s requirement for accepting more German nuclear waste for reprocessing. Consequently, the first transports from German nuclear plants went to La Hague only two weeks after the transports to Gorleben. This means that more German nuclear waste is now stored in France than was the case before the transport to Gorleben in March!

Protests, Information and Toilets
FoE Germany took part in the massive protests in Gorleben. We set up an information booth at the protest site that provided hot news about the whereabouts of the Castors as well as the location and timing of demonstrations and protest camps. But we also catered for all who wanted to find out more about nuclear power or were simply in need of hot coffee or tea (it was very cold!) or a toilet. Although we did not take part in the actions on the railway tracks (which delayed the waste train for more than 24 hours), we cooperated with local activists and the NGO Robin Wood in our press work.

FoE Germany continues to be a focal point of anti-nuclear protests in the country. We hope to build an effective alliance with activists in France and Great Britain in the coming months to stop nuclear waste transports once and for all. This will be key to ensuring the complete phase out of nuclear energy.

Walter Jungbauer, FoE Germany