Protesters attempt to delay Sellafield bound nuclear shipment

Protesters chained themselves to the tracks at a German freight train depot today to hinder the departure of containers being used for a nuclear waste shipment to a British reprocessing plant.

Police in Mannheim said they were using special tools to remove the 11 men and women from the tracks.

Last month, activists staged massive demonstrations and caused serious delays to a shipment of reprocessed waste returning from France to a storage site in northern Germany. Another shipment of waste to France later was slightly delayed by protests.

The waste transport this week is planned to leave the Neckarwestheim nuclear power plant in southern Baden-Wuerttemberg for the Sellafield plant in Cumbria.

The empty waste containers were to leave Mannheim today to pick up the waste for the transport.

Germany had suspended dealings with Sellafield in the wake of a scandal over the falsification of records at the plant last year, but says it has now been assured that regulations have been tightened.

The German government and power companies agreed last year to phase out Germany’s 19 nuclear plants but it could take more than 20 years before the last is closed.

Anti-nuclear groups argue transporting the material is still not safe and want to force a quicker shutdown.