Nuclear Transport: It's A Numbers Game

To date there have been three transports of high level nuclear waste going to Gorleben in northern Germany. Resistance in this area has taken place over the last 20 years with its highlight last March when 30 000 police were needed to "protect" the waste against the will of not only the 15 000 protesters but of the majority of the population. It was the biggest police operation in the history of the federal republic.German law now says that nuclear power plants only get permission to run if they can guarantee that the waste is going to be looked after, which means bringing it either to Sellafield or La Hague or storing it in the shelter in Gorleben or Ahaus. Shipments to Sellafield and La Hague return to Germany after a couple of years and Gorleben is getting too expensive, so the only possibility left is to bring the waste to Ahaus, hoping that there is not going to be such a powerful resistance as in Gorleben.

Police have already announced that they are not going to be able to staff football games in the second half of March as they will have at least 20 000 police in Ahaus. The Castor is leaving from Neckarwestheim and Gundremmingen(Donau) in the week of March 23rd. After that it will go north to Ahaus by train. There is a train track of 4km leading from the main station in Ahaus to the "storing shelter" but police have plans of having a 500m 'demonstration-free' belt either side of the track and of closing the whole town to everybody except for inhabitants. There will be a huge demonstration in Muenster on the 21st of March. After that people will move to the seven camps around Ahaus. Contact BI " Kein Atommuell in Ahaus", Bahnhofstr.51, 48683 Ahaus, 02561/961791, fax 961792, info hotline 961799.