20,000 police for nuclear waste transport

7 Nov Call to take part in a virtual sit-in against the construction of new nuclear power plants throughout Europe, especially the Franco-German European Pressurised Reactor being touted for the world market.  http://www.geocities.com/eactiontool . Other links:  http://www.sortirdunucleaire.org,  http://www.million-against-nuclear.net , http://www.stop-epr.org ,  http://www.siemens-boykott.de + + + + + Media contact with Gorleben protest umbrella group: Francis Althoff phone 05843 986789, 0170-9394684, press van 05861-985791, Dieter Metk 0170-2637782, Margitta Freund, Birgit Huneke, Sibylle Hauswaldt 0171-5454684,  bi-presse@t-online.de + + + + +
About 60 activists went for a night stroll in Göhrde forest. Police asked their leader to come forward. They had no “leader”. The demonstrators dispersed in groups. They knew the area, police didn’t. It was seen as a practice run because the Castor train may pass that way at night. There’ll be another night stroll on Wednesday. + + + + + Authorities have forbidden schoolchildren to attend a demo on 10 November from 9.30 a.m. saying that by law at that time they have to be in school. A parents initiative says they look with respect and admiration at their children and young people getting involved in a highly controversial environmental and societal issue. The parents call on teachers to back the kids and be role models in civic courage. They say the demo will start as planned and parents will be on hand to support the kids. + + + + + Lowloader trucks have started to move to Dannenberg, where the Castor caskets will be unloaded onto them for the last 20 km by road to the Gorleben depot. Activists demonstrated at the trucks as they left their depot and delayed them for 10 minutes. Each of the 12 Castors, weighing more than 100 tonnes, will need one of the 11-axle heavy-duty trailers. A helicopter and federal police guarded the trucks. + + + + + On Tuesday 7 Nov a warning vigil was held in Berlin for Sébastien Briat, the young Frenchman killed by the 2004 Castor train on Nov 7. + + + + + Nuclear weapons are as criminal in NATO states as they are in North Korea or Iran. At local police stations all over Europe activists are filing official complaints against their own governments for the preparation of war crimes. In a joint Bombspotting and Greenpeace initiative the groups are calling on NATO member states to remove the US nuclear weapons deployed in Europe. The complaints to be filed against governments demand the enforcement of international humanitarian law. The International Court of Justice indicated in its Advisory Opinion of 1996 the rules of international law applying to nuclear weapons. The use or threat of nuclear weapons is contrary to these rules of international law, because nuclear weapons cause unnecessary suffering and are indiscriminate. The complaint points out the complicity of governments in NATO nuclear decision-making and consequent responsibility. + + + + + Activists around the large city of Mannheim, which is close to two nuclear power stations, have marked the rail route of the Castor train with placards and banners. Four years ago the train was held up for almost two hours by two activists chained to the rails. + + + + + Previous routes taken reported at  http://www.castor.de/nix10/wocastor.html or  http://www.castor.de/nix10/ticker. + + + + + On 6. Nov Russian and German activists demonstrated at the Gronau uranium enrichment plant, Germany’s only one, which is slated for large growth. They blocked the entrance with placards, stopping all traffic for one and a half hours. Police dispersed the group and took down details of 12 people. Spent uranium is transported from Gronau to Russia by the British-Dutch-German Urenco company. Urenco (participants in Germany are the huge RWE and E.ON power companies) has already sent 20,000 tonnes of waste to Russia for final storage at Novouralsk near Ekaterinburg and Seversk near Tomsk. Conditions there are catastrophic, the towns are hermetically closed off with barbed wire, visits are allowed only with special permits and everything is under government control. The Russian environment action group "Ecodefense!" demands the total stop of nuclear transports to the country. + + + + + 7 Nov At Ahaus, site of a nuclear waste dump, 30 Germans and Russians took part in a warning vigil to mark the second anniversary of the death of French activist Sébastien Briat, killed by the 2004 Castor train on Nov 7. + + + + + Authorities banned for the first time a demonstration at the gate of the Biblis nuclear power station, where demos used to be allowed in previous years. About 500 people took part in a nearby parking lot. The ban is ignored. Banners are held behind the gate. Police disperse the protesters. + + + + + On 6 Nov approaches to the uranium enrichment plant at Gronau were blocked so that delivery vehicles for the transport of radioactive waste to Russia could not pass.  http://www.aktionsbuendnis-muensterland.de
and  http://www.westline.de/index_9365.php. Gronau expansion plans will give the plant a capacity 60% above Germany’s own consumption of enriched uranium. + + + + + On 4 Nov more than 400 demonstrated at the gate to the Brunsbüttel nuke near Hamburg demanding its immediate closure. It’s Germany’s unsafest nuke, with frequent breakdowns, and the same emergency power system whose failure recently almost caused a meltdown at the Forsmark station in Sweden.  http://www.contranetz.de/atom/archiv/061104brunsbuettel/index.htm + + + + + On 7 Nov the Gorleben resistance held a memorial for Sébastien Briat, killed in 2004 by the Castor train in France. A similar memorial was held in Lüneburg. + + + + + 4 Nov “Wanted” posters have gone up in northeast Lower Saxony asking the public for information about police who perpetrated violence and bodily harm near the village of Pommoissel, where a small group of demonstrators approached the railway track just before the Castor train was due there. Police jumped on the activists, threw them to the ground and roughed them up. Faces were pressed into the railbed stones, several cops kneed on single persons, arms and legs were twisted. In one case eight police were on one activist for more than 20 minutes. The activists have filed charges against persons unknown. Police have been observed several times tearing the “wanted!” posters down.
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 http://www.de-uhl.de/data/tmp_media/detail3bis.JPG + + + + + 4 Nov Rail travellers between Lüneburg and Dannenberg have to expect being spied on by federal police. Three friends who met coincidentally on a train and talked about the upcoming Gorleben demo were accosted at Dannenberg station by two people in civilian clothes who identified themselves as federal police. The police stopped the three getting off the train and then checked their personal data in a computer. The negative check took so long that one of thje three missed his connecting train. So, careful what you talk about in trains these days! + + + + + 2 Nov About 20 delegates from anti-nuclear groups in North-Rhine Westphalia met in Münster for their second uranium transport conference. Main topics were the uranium transports from Pierrelatte/France to Gronau and from Gronau to Russia. Cooperationm with Russian groups has grown greatly. There are also contacts to France and The Netherlands. + + + + + 1 Nov The Hesse state environment ministry has been handed a list of 7,406 signatures protesting against a planned depot at Hanau for weak and medium radioactive waste. + + + + + 28 Oct Demo in Uelzen, 40 km from Gorleben, against coming Castor transport. People were urged to change their power supplier to green. About 160 people took part, two thirds of last year’s number. Especially older activists appear not to have been motivated this time. A new generation stopped traffic for about 15 minutes in the centre of town with a sit-down blockade at a roundabout. Videos at  http://de.indymedia.org/2006/11/161310.shtml,  http://de.indymedia.org/2006/11/161276.shtml,  http://de.indymedia.org/2006/11/161270.shtml,  http://de.indymedia.org/2006/11/161262.shtml. Although most of the protest went off peacefully, ugly scenes are said to have happened later at Uelzen railway station. + + + + + 31 Oct As in previous years, police are again sorting between “good” and “bad” journalists. Photographers who’ve followed events for years have been told their press ID’s aren’t acceptable.  http://de.indymedia.org/2006/10/160625.shtml + + + + + 31 Oct Demonstrators dressed as clowns encounter police squads on the Castor rail route in a forest. The clowns tease the police in various ways and the police look helpless in dealing with that.  http://de.indymedia.org/2006/10/160608.shtml + + + + + 31 Oct Bremen activists have hung a 50 sq metre anti-nuclear banner over the entrance to the main railway station. Two weeks ago they stuck “Gorleben is everywhere” signs over official town entry signs.  http://de.indymedia.org/2006/10/160599.shtml + + + + + +
Police are again setting up “special law” zones for themselves, erecting barriers at all railway crossings between Leitstade and Hitzacker and allowing people only to cross only on foot, singly and after taking down their personal data. This despite a recent court verdict ruling such police actions illegal.  http://de.indymedia.org/2006/10/160580.shtml + + + + + Boosting anti-nuclear argumentation comes news about a big money-making alarmist subculture in the USA alleging Al Qaida plans to simultaneously explode atom bombs in several US cities. The propaganda is tolerated, if not promoted by the government and ultra-conservative circles.  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/10/160489.shtml + + + + On 30 Oct about 180 people gathered at the railway track in Göhrde Forest bringing stones to lay along it, including a three-tonne one with an X chiselled into it by an artist. X is the sign of the anti-nuclear resistance. A police line attempted to stop people crossing the track. But in the dark a convoy of tractors and other vehicles got through and paid a visit to a horse farm housing 70 mounted police and 35 of their horses.  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/10/160448.shtml + + + + + 30 Oct call by Autononous Block, the most militant demonstrators, to come from all over Germany to the Gorleben demonstration on 11 November. + + + + + The Lower Saxony state government warns of “heightened danger through potential perpetrators of violence”. It says autonomous groups are calling for militant actions in the Internet and on placards. The government warned of “unbearable costs” for Lower Saxony of the police deployment. The interior minister said the football world championship and neo-Nazi marches had pushed the state police to their limit. + + + + + Activists have hung X’s and banners in trees along the federal road at Dahlenburg (  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/10/160112.shtml ) and have written anti-nuclear slogans on the road surface. Police tried to interfere with the protesters but found no grounds. They took down their particulars, anyway. The Lüneburg activists meet regularly at Anna’s and Arthur’s  http://www.ligatomanlagen.de/ . + + + + +
Inestimable damage to people and the environment must be feared from the flooding of the Cigar Lake uranium mine in Canada. Activists point to similarities with the salt mine in Gorleben they are convinced will be declared the final waste repository.  http://www.anti-atom-aktuell.de/aktuelles/20061028uranbergwerk.html  http://www.cameco.com/media_gateway/news_releases/2006/news_release.php?id=157 + + + + + “Our gates and doors are open to the Resistance” says a sign at the entrance to the village of Metzingen. It’s a response to the declaration of large-scale off-limits areas along the Castor route by authorities. The repeated declarations are the subject of a complaint by the Gorleben Resistance to the German supreme court. In the coming action days Metzingen will be a “resistance camp” and social centre.  http://goehrde.plentyfact.net/ A local steel sculptor has made and donated a cup for the “promotion of resistance skills”.  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/10/160344.shtml + + + + + 27 Oct In Lüneburg police hold a young woman for two hours after an ID checking action. The woman is in the Castor resistance records and was handed for interrogation to state security police. She was handcuffed while waiting for these officials. Two security men interrogated her about friends, people she lives with and other contacts. They confiscated a map. + + + + + 16 Oct An angry sun sprayed on to the back of a traffic sign upset police near Lüneburg. Two women were suspected and stopped from driving on in their car. Their details were taken down and their car was searched. The police computer had both as Castor activists. Both women were body-searched. Finally a black marker pen was found and confiscated.  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/10/160266.shtml + + + + + 28 Oct Demos announced in Lüneburg for 4, 7 and 10 Nov + + + + + Call for 4 Nov demo at fault-prone nuclear reactor at Brunsbüttel, said to be less afe than the one that nearly had a meltdown in Sweden. + + + + + Call for 4 Nov demo in Biblis, location of Germany’s most fault-prone nuclear station. + + + + + 7 Nov anti-nuclear film evening Uni campus Mainz. + + + + + 11 Nov Castor Alarm! Info point Woerth/Rh. + + + + + 27 Oct “General decree” placards put up all over Lüchow-Dannenberg county by the “Free Wendland Republic” banning all police presence in the area. It’s a mirrored response to a “general decree” by the authorities banning many protest activities because from them allegedly emanate great dangers. The protesters’ decree says it’s nuclear energy that’s causing the dangers.  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/10/160248.shtml + + + + +
Anti-Castor action sites:  http://www.castor.de/aktionen/2006/allgvfg2.html,  http://www.castor.de,  http://www.castor-blog.de,  http://www.bi-luechow-dannenberg.de ,  http://www.anti-atom-aktuell.de/,  http://www.x-tausendmalquer.de/ ,  http://www.widersetzen.de/,  http://www.baeuerliche-notgemeinschaft.de/, dates of actions  http://www.castor.de/php/termine/termine.php,  http://www.castor.de/aktionen/2006/allgvfg2.html + + + + + 27 Oct Police declare a no-go area along the rail and road rote from Lüneburg to Gorleben. Police say they expect road and rail blockades and disruption of rail and road traffic. The ban is from 11 to 21 November. The banned strip is 50 metres either side of road and rail. + + + + + 25 Oct Police are taking down road signs in the county indicating town and village names. Locals had been blacking out the names. Welcome in the Nowhere!  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/10/160121.shtml + + + + + 24 Oct Groups up and down the country have been mobilising for weeks against the Castor transport.  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/10/160121.shtml + + + + + Actions in the run-up:
· Workshop of the clownarmy from 26-28.10 Meuchefitz
· 28.10 Rally and demo through Uelzen
· 28.10 Oldies sit at the train offloading station in Dannenberg
· 28.10 Taking places in Göhrde Forest
· 4.11 Demo at Brunsbüttel nuclear power station
· 4.11 Demo at Biblis nuclear power station
· 5.11 Bicycle demo Lüneburg
· 6.11 Night stroll in Leitstade
· 7.11 Fire and music in Hitzacker on the anniversary of the day French activist Sébastien Briat was killed ba a Castor train
· 10.11 Pupils’ demo in Lüchow
· 10.11 Demo Bremen
· 11.11 Demo Gorleben
· 11.11 Lantern walk Metzingen
· 12.11 Sitdown blockade in Dannenberg
· 12.11 Rallye in Göhrde Forest
Organisation
There will be camps and sleeping place info centres
· Hitzacker – Resistance Camp by the lake
· Metzingen – The village as camp (barns camp)
Info points/sleeping places
· Lüneburg The infocafè "Anna & Arthur" will be open again through the Castor transport days. Meals, warm drinks and infos will be offered.
· Dahlenburg – Info point at Oldendorfer Brücke
· Dannenberg, Essowiese – Info point and sleeping place list
+ + + + + 25 Oct Near Lüneburg police rolled out NATO razor wire, three rows deep, along the rail track. + + + + + 25 Oct Call to coordination meeting in Gorleben. + + + + + Call to demo on 11 Nov in Winsen on Luhe. One of the possible Castor routes is Nienburg - Verden - Rotenburg (Wümme) - Buchholz - Maschen - Winsen - Lüneburg. Bus to Gorleben laid on, fare 10 euros. + + + + + Call to demo in Lüchow on 10 Nov by school children under the motto "I dont go to school today – for a non-radiocative life for all”. Pupils intend to ignore the order of the local authority to attend classes that day, arguing that their duty to fight for a better environment is higher than the duty to attend school. Call to annoy the official who ordered attendance. + + + + + Call to a meeting on 2 Nov to discuss Castor blocking possibilities. + + + + + Call to a meeting of demo first aid providers on 2 November. + + + + + 23 Oct The Lüchow Dannenberg Citizens Environment Initiative (BI) puts out word that this year's Castor transport of nuclear waste to Gorleben will be brought forward a day from 11 to 10 November. The tenth such shipment will bring another 12 highly radioactive waste caskets from the French plutonium factory in La Hague. According to the BI, the Germans and French argued about the date. Whereas German Railways (DB) wanted the train to roll out of the loading station of Valognes on 10 November, the French were strictly opposed because of increased railway traffic ahead of a national holiday on 11 November. + + + + + 23 Oct Busy mobilising for weeks in Bremen. “Gorleben is everywhere” pasted over place name signs, banners in trees, leaflets to passers-by, call to 10 Nov demo in Bremen.  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/10/159956.shtml + + + + + 14 Oct Lüneburg Casto action group held a trainstopping day with workshops on nuclear policy, Castor transports, legal aid, non-violent action training, tree climbing. One group moved through the city centre putting into practice some of what they’d learnt in a communication guerrilla workshop. House walls were graffitied with chalk. Police took down names. Positive public response to the actions. Call to other actions: 5 Nov bicycle demo, 7 Nov remembrance watch with lanterns on death day of Sébastien Briat, 13 Nov on the rails.  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/10/159602.shtml + + + + + Demo in Uelzen 20 Oct + + + + + During the night from 12 to 13 Oct three metal claws were attached to the power lines of the railways. A group calling itself “Counter Pressure” claimed the action in connection with the coming Castor transport. It the past such hooks have caused delays of hours in rail traffic because they ripped the power lines down as locomotives hit them. + + + + + 6 Oct A radio transmission tower in the county used by police during Castor transports was found felled. Police say they’re “investigating in all directions”. The damage amounts to at least 30,000 euros. Also, a 60cm deep hole 15 cm across was found drilled in a road near the village of Grippel. Unofficially police sources spoke of preparations for a chain-on action. In connection with the hole police searched through farm buildings in Langendorf, saying their suspicions against a person had hardened.  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/10/158451.shtml + + + + + 1 Oct Exhibition “The Gorleben Feeeling” opened in Berlin. + + + + + 29 Sept. The giant German transnational energy corporation RWE rekindles the debate over Germany's plans to phase out nuclear power by applying to extend the license of one of its oldest nuclear power stations. Social Democrats, junior partners to conservatives in the coalition government, reject the plan. + + + + + 11 Sept Anti-nuclear activists block the entry to the Brunsbüttel nuke. + + + + + 30 Aug A railcar carrying spent nuclear fuel derailed in La-Ferté-Saint-Aubin near Orléans (about 140 km south of Paris). Official statements claimed there was no danger. + + + + + 29 Aug Almost 10,000 people flooded into the little Spanish village of Peque de Carballeda to protest against plans to dump nuclear waste. The 200 villagers were as surprised as the organisers at the massive turnout.  http://germany.indymedia.org/2006/08/156037.shtml