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Several transports of highly radioactive nuclear waste may roll through Germany next year, nuclear opponents have researched, and another 1,000-1,250 tonnes of depleted uranium are being readied for transportation to Russia in about 25 railcars.

The Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Lüchow-Dannenberg (BI), which fights waste dumping at the northern village of Gorleben, and other anti-nuclear activists have found out that waste consignments are due next year to all three “interim” dumps at Ahaus (45 linear km northwest of Münster), Lubmin (120 km east of Rostock) and Gorleben (155 km northeast of Hannover).

The BI comments that “thousands are going to take to the streets to oppose this” and says the anti-nuclear movement has had a surge in numbers since last autumn 16,000 delayed another waste load to Gorleben.

"In the autumn we’re doing a tractor run to Berlin to generate pressure to end the crazy plan to make Gorleben the final repository and to get out of nuclear power production.

“In 2010 there’ll be a stocktaking across the country, the waste transport continue to be a provocation because they symbolize the disposal dilemma” (of there being no safe storage system anywhere on the globe).

Several hundred nuclear casks with highly radioactive waste, so-called Castor CSDC 28’s, are to be taken from the French plutonium factory at La Hague and a German research facility at Jülich (65 km west of Cologne) to Ahaus. A special high-pressure waste compacting facility has been built in La Hague for the purpose.

The BI notes that this creates a new category of waste which starts medium-active and becomes highly active from heat.

Recently the Federal Radiation Protection Agency (BfS) approved the storage of five transport and storage containers of the type Castor HAW 20/28 CG SN 16 for dumping in Lubmin.

The BfS expects transports next year of highly active wastes from a former recycling plant at Karlsruhe (146 km south of Frankfurt am Main), which are to be locked in blocks of molten glass in a new facility. These transports are to be bundled in Ahaus and Gorleben to minimize policing costs.

After an enforced break this year, next year another consignment of 11 Castors containing gals-fused highly active nuclear waste is due to be railed and trucked from La Hague to Gorleben.

There could be no consignment in election year 2009 because a new type of casket, Castor HAW 28 M, to deal with greater heat generation failed to get licensed because it didn’t meet criteria.

The BI sees opportunities for litigation but is certain the meantime that “we’ll muck up the operators’ schedule because the third obstacle will be our resistance.”

EON und RWE assembling new waste uranium shipment

Meanwhile activists have observed another large depleted uranium train being assembled in Germany’s only uranium enrichment factory at Gronau, to go to Russia for dumping in the open air.

The SOFA group of activists reports that “the usual Russia-wagons are already standing in two rows in the grounds.”

SOFA speculates that the train will set out on the 22^nd, next Wednesday, to coincide with the annual meeting of the RWE utility corporation so that no one notices. RWE and EON jointly own the German third of the Urenco enrichment company, the other two thirds are Dutch and British owned.

The previous depleted uranium transport from Gronau to Russia set out on 11 March. For the first time the train left so late that all passenger traffic on the single-track line Gronau-Steinfurt-Münster had already ended for the day.

Last year two spectacular abseil actions by French woman Cécile Lecomte delayed uranium trains for several hours and disrupted all passenger traffic.

Also in 2008 the CEO’s of RWE and EON announced that the waste uranium transports to Russia would stop this year. Yet the 500 metres long train in March, comprising 25 cars, holding 100 UF6 containers and 1,250 tonnes of depleted UF6 was up to then the biggest uranium waste transport of this type.

“It now appears that at the last moment another 1,000-1,250 tonnes of uranium waste is to be tipped on to a meadow in Russia.

“Maybe RWE hope that on the day of the annual meeting no one will really be interested in Gronau and the train starting out there. We’re going to spoil their plan,” SOFA writes. They’re planning to demonstrate outside the meeting.

Anti-nuclear activists are planning an inter-regional demonstration in Münster for 25 April. It will be one of three central ones taking place throughout Germany on the 23^rd anniversary of the Chernobyl explosion. The other two will be outside nuclear power stations at Krümmel (40 km southeast of Hamburg) and Neckarwestheim (170 km south of Frankfurt) on the 26^th.