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11/28/11

Germany: Nuclear waste train nears journey's end - by Frederic Happe

A shipment of radioactive waste was nearing its final destination in Germany Monday on a five-day odyssey from France marred by sometimes violent clashes between police and demonstrators.

The train with 11 containers of nuclear waste arrived in the northern town of Dannenberg shortly after 0400 GMT after running a gauntlet of protesters trying to block its progress along the 1,200-kilometre (750-mile) route.

The authorities were unloading the waste on to trucks for its final 20-kilometre leg by road to a storage facility in Gorleben, a former salt mine, a process likely to take several hours.

Note EU-Digest: German police temporarily detained 1,300 protesters who blocked a train carrying nuclear waste on Sunday. On Sunday, protesters staged a sit-in on the tracks near Dannenberg, 12 miles away from the train’s final destination. Some people fastened themselves to the rails.About 150 people, mostly demonstrators, were injured in scuffles with police, according to German  security forces. The nuclear waste was coming from France. The german Government had prviously agreed to ban all nuclear plants on its territory by 2022.

For more: AFP: Nuclear waste train nears journey's end

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