The first Castor transport with German nuclear waste from abroad in nine years has arrived in Germany. A special ship from Great Britain, which had been expected for several days, moored in the port of Nordenham on the Weser on Monday morning, the police said. From there, the six Castor casks are to be transported by train to an interim storage facility in Biblis in Hesse. Neither the transport company GNS nor the heavily represented police gave information about the departure of the train and the route.

The route from Nordenham to Biblis is possible West through North Rhine-Westphalia or east through Hanover. Nuclear opponents criticize the transport of the still radiant material. They kept a vigil not only in Nordenham. Various anti-nuclear groups have also called for rallies along the possible routes towards Biblis.

The nuclear waste from German nuclear power plants was processed in the British reprocessing plant Sellafield. The ship “Pacific Grebe” set sail from a port there last Tuesday. The freighter was escorted by the federal police on the journey through the North Sea. In the twelve-mile zone off the coast, the Lower Saxony police took over.

By late Monday evening, a crane lifted four of the round containers from the ship onto the wagons provided. The reloading will no longer be completed on Monday, but will drag on until Tuesday, said a police spokeswoman. In front of the cordoned off port area, several opponents of nuclear power held a vigil during the day. “It was peaceful,” said the spokeswoman.

The company GNS, which carries out the transport, also said that the reloading would take until Tuesday. The external radiation of the Castor container is measured again when it is moved. At the last measurement in Sellafield, the value was a quarter of the permitted limit value.

Castor transport under corona conditions The corona pandemic affects both the security of the transport and the demonstrations. Police Vice President Andres Sagehorn said the Oldenburg Police Department had drawn up a comprehensive hygiene concept based on the recommendations of the Robert Koch Institute. “The health of everyone involved has the highest priority,” said the head of operations. This applies both to citizens who exercise their basic right to freedom of assembly and to the police forces on duty like from the French plant La Hague. There is a lot of criticism of the transport of the dangerous material. Environmentalists see deficiencies in the Biblis interim storage facility and safety deficits in the Castor containers. The interim storage company (BGZ), which is responsible for the storage of highly radioactive nuclear waste, rejects these concerns. Helicopters would also be used. “We are responsible for the start of rail transport,” he said. Most recently in November 2011 Castors from La Hague were brought to the Gorleben interim storage facility in Lower Saxony. The train journey dragged on for five days because tracks were blocked.

Lower Saxony’s Environment Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) criticized protests against the Castor transport. In the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung Lies appealed to the Castor opponents “to think about whether it wouldn’t make more sense to respond to possible counter-demonstrations to renounce – precisely because we have a pandemic dangerous situation “. To expose the police officers to an additional risk of infection through the planned protests is “irresponsible,” said Lies. He emphasized that the nuclear phase-out had been decided, so it made no sense to revive the old ideological struggles.

(olb)