Tractors parade as part of ongoing actions against the planned resumption of nuclear waste transports to Germany, in Gorleben Sunday, March 25, 2001. The waste is due to arrive next week. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)

Organizers said that several thousand people had taken part in the protest on 500 tractors.

Tractors first surrounded a temporary waste storage facility in Gorleben and later headed for another demonstration in nearby Seerau.

On Saturday, more than 10,000 anti-nuclear activists had protested in Lueneburg against the resumption of nuclear waste shipments, and many spent the night in churches or at a campground. No incidents were reported.

On Monday, treated nuclear waste is scheduled to be shipped from a French recycling facility in La Hague to Gorleben, some 70 kilometers (45 miles) from Lueneburg.

It will be the first such shipment in four years.

The transport of nuclear waste from France to Germany was halted in 1998 after numerous protests, particularly from German environmental activists.

But French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder announced after meeting on January 31 that the shipments would resume.

 

Hundreds of demonstrators walk on train tracks from Woerth to Hagenbach, in southern Germany, during a protest against the transport of nuclear waste Sunday, March 25, 2001. The activists expect a train carrying nuclear waste from La Hague, France to Gorleben in northern Germany to pass through the area next week. Banner reads: "Shut down." (AP Photo/Winfried Rothermel)

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Copyright © 2001 AFP