The authorities in Germany yesterday mounted one of the largest post-war security operations the country has seen when more than 30,000 police were used to force a train carrying nuclear waste through protesters on its way to a dump north of Cologne.
A 27-year-old policeman died after he was hit by an oncoming train near the southern city of Wuerzburg. Officials said that protesters trying to prevent the six containers of radioactive waste on another train reaching Ahaus in the north were not responsible for the accident.
Throughout the day, police cleared hundreds of protesters from tracks as the train carrying the waste made its 12-hour journey north from nuclear power plants in southern Germany.
The 570-metre train was stopped a number of times by protesters and more than 3,500 demonstrators gathered in Ahaus to prevent it arriving. A rock band performed from the back of a truck to encourage the demonstrators, but an overwhelming police presence ensured that the environmentalists had little chance of success.
Protesters were wrong-footed by the authorities' decision to move the nuclear waste earlier than planned and police were already breaking up demonstrations in Ahaus early yesterday.
The shipment sparked a row between Chancellor Helmut Kohl's centre-right government and Mr Wolfgang Clement, the Social Democrat prime minister-designate of the state of North Rhine Westphalia, to which Ahaus belongs.
Mr Clement, who governs in a coalition with the Greens, described the nuclear waste shipment as "irresponsible madness" and a provocation. But Dr Kohl's Environment Minister, Ms Angela Merkel, said nuclear waste shipments across Germany would be needed for years to come because of a nuclear policy agreed by both the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats in 1979.
The waste is the product of recycled nuclear rods and must be stored and constantly cooled for more than 20 years. Although it is encased in glass, the material is hot - about 450 Celsius at the centre of the containers - and remains radioactive.
The six Castor containers (the word is short for Cask for Storage and Transport of Radioactive Materials) will be stored in a 10,000 sq metre storage hall in Ahaus, one of only two such dumps in Germany.
Environmentalists say the shipment is dangerous, expensive and unnecessary and that nuclear waste should be stored near where it is produced. Protests against the shipments have become an annual ritual in Germany, with thousands of demonstrators battling with a massive police presence each year.
