Some 4,000 protestors awaited the train carrying spent nuclear fuel from France. The waste was generated in German nuclear power plants and sent to France for reprocessing.
German law requires that after reprocessing, the waste be returned to Germany.
More than 400 protestors were removed or detained by German police. Militant demonstrators destroyed police vehicles and damaged train tracks to prevent the shipment from passing. Nuclear waste transport to Germany was recently resumed after shipments were suspended in 1998 because of radioactive leaks in some containers. The German government claims that it has revised the transport safety rules and welcomes the public pressure exerted by the peaceful protests. The protestors object to the generation of highly dangerous nuclear waste in Germany and aim to make the transport so costly that the government will be forced to halt its generation.