Germany: Protesters removed from path of nuclear train

[John Ashworth]

Protesters removed from path of nuclear train

Mon Nov 28 2011 7:31 - ITN

Police in Germany have removed hundreds of protesters from railway tracks in the north of the country, as they continued to attempt to block the path of a train carrying nuclear waste.

On Monday morning, officers entered camps where some demonstrators had chained and even concreted themselves onto the tracks.

In all, some 800 sit-down protesters were peacefully removed before the train reached its final shipping depot, where the waste was transferred to road containers.

The train, carrying 11 containers of waste, has been hit by constant delays and demonstrations since it left Normandy on November 23.

It is the final of 12 shipments of a contract between French and German firms, and is likely to be the last nuclear waste to be carried by rail through Germany, following new laws on the carriage of radioactive materials.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged to shut down eight of Germany's nuclear power plants in the wake of March's disaster at Japan's Fukushima plant.

She has also said that all its remaining nuclear capacity would be taken off the grid by 2022.