Officials from Greenpeace, the international environmental group associated with the demonstrations, said activists fought the nuclear waste shipment to protest inadequate safety measures to prevent leaks and nuclear power in general. But the German government, which has agreed to make the country nuclear-free around 2025, is contractually obliged to take back any nuclear waste sent abroad for reprocessing.
Officials insist the government has tightened safety rules for the transports.
But it is now happening under acceptable political conditions. The event was the latest in a series of actions by protesters aimed at blocking the nuclear convoy, including attaching themselves by ropes and chains to railway bridges, laying bales of straw on the tracks and holding various sit-ins. But we denounce this return because it opens the door to trains coming from the other direction. The train left the French village of Valognes with six 10-ton containers of nuclear material just before dawn on Monday, with a handful of Greenpeace activists heckling the convoy as it departed. But after a day slowly traveling through France, the protests picked up after the train crossed into Germany.