Germany: Nuclear Waste

international | environment | other press Saturday November 06, 2004 22:37 by DIET SIMON

- protest against nuclear waste in germany -

The train taking 12 Castor caskets of nuclear waste to Gorleben in north Germany left Valognes, northern France, at 9.05 pm. Saturday.
It consists of two diesel locomotives (green), two passenger carriages, 12 Castor waggons, another passenger carriage, another diesel locomotive (green).

Anti-nuclear activists report more people, more trac-tors and apparently more courage and rage oppos-ing this year’s consignment. A post at http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97546.shtml says a start-up rally in nearby Dannenberg, the railhead, has ex-ceeded all expectations. It claims between 5,000 and 6,000 protesters – more than last year. The number is even being used by the police – who’re also in the county in their thousands. Organisers had said earlier they’d be satisfied with 3,000. “It appears that against all expectations the re-sistance is growing again,” says the post. Pictures at http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97571.shtml.

Meanwhile people are moving into resistance camps in south Germany and the Gorleben area and preparing for the rail and truck consignment.

In recent weeks and months police actions in previous nu-clear waste transports were often criticised by courts. Headlines of recent weeks indicate the trend: “Police act il-legally”, “Police action illegal again,” “Police action again criticised”, “Inhuman encirclement” or “Castor opponents released too late” (sourced from the local ELbe-Jeetzel Zei-tung newspaper).

An administrative court has overturned a general ban on demonstrating at and on the transport route in the Gorle-ben area. Every case has to be decided on its merits, “a great improvement on recent years.”

See also http://www.saar-echo.de/news.php?news_ID=15583, which puts the num-ber of demonstrators in Dannenberg at about 3,000.

The Castor timetable:

Sat. 6.11. evening: Departure of the Castor caskets from La Hague, northern France.

Sun. 7.11. midday/afternoon: Castor train crosses Franco-German border (Lauterbourg/Wörth).

Mon. 8.11. Early morning, earliest 3:00 a.m., Castors ar-rive in Lüneburg.

Mon. 8.11. morning: rail route Lüneburg -> Dannenberg
Trucking Dannenberg-> Gorleben: earliest Monday eve-ning, more likely Tuesday, early morning or still in the night.

(Precise and updated schedule is at www.castor.de)


Other action dates:

Nationwide:

http://www.castor.de/php/termine/termine.php

In the Wendland (Gorleben area) Wendland:

http://www.castor.de/php/termine/bi_ticker.php



Phone numbers:

Info-hotline (BI Lüchow-Dannenberg): 01805 - 25 27 69 (12 cent/min)

Info telephone X1000malquer : 0431-210 88 21

Investigation committee (in case of arrest) Tel.:0 58 41-97 94 30

The BI’s medics Tel.:0 58 44-97 11 019

Aktion "Widersetzen": Tel. 05843 1433 www.widersetzen.de

Vigils info telephone: 0 41 31 - 4 85 99

Info for south Germany: http://www.castor-stoppen.de/


Information points and camps:
Dannenberg - Esso Wiese
Hitzacker - Lüneburger Straße (at "von der Bussche" oppo-site service station)
Dahlenburg - wandernder Punkt
Gusborn, Langendorf, Laase, Gorleben (info to follow)
Lüchow (caring for prisoners, opposite the police barracks,
former Heuer")
Platenlaase - Café Grenzbereiche
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday from 9 am to midnight.

Lüneburg
c. 12 vigils between Lüneburg and Göhrde
Info: 0 41 31 - 4 85 99

Camps:
Hitzacker - Camp an der Seewiese (at the archäologisches Zentrum)
Metzingen – an entire village as a camp
Contact point Metzingen im Rundling from 5 November, 0162 - 88 63 59 4
Meudelfitz (Gut Meudelfitz) : http://www.wigatom.de/


Other information and links:

radiofreieswendland: (Sunday and Monday)
Lüneburg area 95.5 MHz, Uelzen 88.0 MHz and Wendland 89.7 MHz

Keeping up with the Castors: http://www.castor.de/ticker/index.html

Collation of links and information: http://www.akte-nix.de/castor/gorleben2004.htm

Biggest topical collection of information on the Castor 2004 happening: http://www.castor.de

Tips, information, links for actions on “Day X”: www.querstellen.de

Running schedule: http://www.castor.de/nix9/wocastor.html

Topical reporting: http://www.castor.de/3aktuelles.html

Topical reporting on Indymedia: http://de.indymedia.org/

Hitchhiking centre:
http://www.x1000malquer.de/mfg.html

Non-violent sit-down blockades: http://www.x1000malquer.de

Photos of the Castor transport: www.castornix.de

News and reports nationwide: http://www.anti-atom.info/

Updates for south Germany:
http://www.i-st.net/~buendnis/

SMS call-around:
http://www.oneworldweb.de/castor/aktionen/internet/sms_liste.html

Maps of the Wendland:
http://www.castor.de/nix9/karten.html
http://www.castor.de/nix5/2001/anfahrt.html

Events:
http://www.oneworldweb.de/castor/php/termine/bi_ticker.php
http://www.oneworldweb.de/castor/php/termine/termine.php
http://www.x1000malquer.de/termine.html


Homepage:: http://www.akte-nix.de/castor/gorleben.htm

+ + +

About 150 people demonstrated at Wiesental train station near the Philippsburg atomic power station Saturday after-noon. Despite a ban, they crossed the transport route, tol-erated by police, although they took down some names. Karlsruhe county has banned demonstrations in a 100-metre wide corridor along the transport route. Activists see good chances of getting the ban overturned, as happened to a similar one issued in Lüneburg and overturned by the administrative court there. “The fact that police tolerated our infringement shows how senseless the ban is – it was just meant to intimidate anti-nuclear activists,” said local organisers. A stroll is planned along the rails on Sunday, in the direction the Castor train will be coming from. More in-formation from. http://www.castor-stoppen.de, http://neckarwestheim.antiatom.de or http://www.castor.de, Phillip Hofmeister and Eric Tschöp, mobile 0160 - 992 181 52, fax: 012 12 - 579 235 490, e-mail: presse-sw@gmx.de, http://www.castor-stoppen.de.

+ + +

Warm accommodation, vegan meals and up to date infor-mation are offered to visiting activists by the Hitzacker-Camp am See, open since Thursday 4 November. It’s on the "Seewiese" by the Archäologisches Zentrum in Hit-zacker. Accommodation is in heated tents or with host families in Hitzacker. Children welcome – there are some special events for them and there’s a playground right next door. e-mail: camp-hitzacker@gmx.de, homepage: http://www.castorgruppehitzacker.tk, address: "Seewiese" Hitzacker, phone: 05862 – 941409.

+ + +

Hundreds of people took part in demonstrations by school pupils on Friday. In nearby Lüneburg it was even c. 1,000 (pictures and more information about the Lüneburg action at http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97523.shtml). In Lüchow, the administrative centre of Lüchow-Dannenberg county, where Gorleben is located, police were attacked with eggs. Police have to expect more massive resistance the closer the transport gets to Gorleben. http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97514.shtml

+ + +

A policeman’s hand was injured in a demonstration involv-ing farm tractors on Friday. Police blame demonstrators, while the anti-nuclear civic action group in Luechow, BI, says the policeman was careless. It also rejected police al-legations that activists injured two police horses, saying the riders forced them to trot on a railway bridge, causing them to slip and fall on its metal plates. http://de.news.yahoo.com/041105/12/4a6q1.html

+ + +

Near the Dutch border, at Gronau, the site of Germany's only uranium enrichment plant ( http://germany.indymedia.org/2004/09/93964.shtml), German and Dutch anti-nuclear activists will be watching out for trains that may be taking depleted uranium to Rot-terdam for onshipment to Russia. The activists think the operators may try to use the Gorleben activities as cover. Legal action by Dutch activists has stopped expansion of a Urenco sister plant at Almelo and this success is to be dis-cussed at meetings in Gronau. http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97508.shtml

+ + +

The Greens’ youth wing is calling for large numbers of peo-ple to take part in non-violent resistance against the trans-port. http://www.pressrelations.de/index.cfm?start_url=http%3A//www.pressrelations.de/search/release.cfm%3Fr%3D173126%26style%3D

+ + +

The entire village of Metzingen near Gorleben has declared itself a resistance camp. An info point opened up Friday af-ternoon. Camp-Tel: 0162 - 886 35 94. Directions on how to get there and more information at http://goehrde.plentyfact.net/ Homepage:: http://goehrde.plentyfact.net

+ + +

The Lower Saxony environment ministry says “extensive radiation measurements will again take place” of the trans-port “to protect the population and the accompanying per-sonnel”. http://www.pressrelations.de/index.cfm?start_url=http%3A//www.pressrelations.de/search/release.cfm%3Fr%3D173119%26style%3D

+ + +

BUND, the German section of Friends of the Earth Interna-tional, has called on the government to table a final reposi-tory law before the end of the year. Two legislative periods had passed without progress in searching for a final nuclear waste dump and things hadn’t advanced since the Social Democrat Greens coalition took power, BUND said. http://www.mysan.de/article25169.html

+ + +

Civic action groups in the state of Lower Saxony, where Gorleben is located, have challenged the legality of the transports. Their joint media release is at http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97411.shtml.

+ + +

Salt deposits like the one in Gorleben are unsuitable for storing nuclear waste, say experts. Geophysicist Nikolai Gestermann explained to the «Berliner Zeitung» newspaper that because salt is lighter than the sand and clay layers above it, it presses upwards – comparable to an air bubble in honey. “In my view a salt deposit is therefore unsuitable for an atomic waste repository that has to be safe for hun-dreds of thousands of years.” http://de.news.yahoo.com/041106/336/4a75a.html Anti-nuclear activists allege that German federal and regional governments and the nuclear industry are planning to use the Gorleben salt deposit as a final dump regardless, al-though exploratory mining of it has been stopped after sci-entific advice. They say every waste consignment into the “interim storage” hall in Gorleben makes permanent stor-age in the salt more likely. See on this http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/tagesthema/392695.html and http://www.taz.de/pt/2004/11/06/a0151.nf/text.ges,1