A policeman watches ten activists of environmental organization Robin-Wood waving from a tower of the storage center Gorleben after they attached a banner reading 'stop Castor.' (AFP/DDP/Marcus Brandt)

A convoy of highly radioactive nuclear waste started the last and trickiest stage of its journey by rail to a German dump, as thousands of protesters plotted to disrupt the transport.

Anti-nuclear campaigners dragged police into running confrontations as the train rumbled slowly from Lueneburg to Dannenberg in northern Germany.

The activists, up to 150 strong, repeatedly sat down on the tracks, forcing police to haul them off only to repeat their action further on.

Further protests were planned at Dannenberg, where the train was scheduled to arrive later Tuesday.

There, the 12 containers of nuclear waste were due to be transferred on to a low-loader for the short journey by road -- probably early Wednesday -- to the storage facility at Gorleben.

The 50-kilometre line from Lueneburg to Dannenberg is considered by police to be the trickiest phase of the transport as activists have in the past centered their protests there, often blocking the trains for hours.

Such actions have become a staple since the convoys began in 1995, forcing authorities this year to deploy around 13,000 police in what has become one of Germany's largest security operations of its kind.

However, the number of demonstrators has significantly dropped over recent years, notably after the German government agreed to phase out atomic energy, and the latest protests were a far cry from their chaotic heyday.

A train carrying 12 Castor nuclear waste containers passes through the French German border in Lauterbourg, in eastern France, November 10, 2003. The train was on its way to the Gorleben interim storage facility in Northern Germany. German police expect thousands of demonstrators to try to block the transport, which is carrying reprocessed German nuclear waste from the La Hague reprocessing plant Gorleben. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

Two people were detained late Monday after chaining themselves to the track, and another 17 after scuffles with police when they tried to occupy a freight station.

Scuffles also broke out in Lueneburg itself.

The train, trundling along at an average speed of just under 15 kilometers per hour, is currently running some five hours behind schedule because of the cumulative effects of the protests since it left the northwestern French town of La Hague on Monday.

Police said the situation at Gorleben itself was "calm."

Anti-nuclear and environmental campaigners say the shipments are dangerous and that the waste will contaminate the water table at Gorleben.

The nuclear waste had been treated at a reprocessing center at La Hague where Germany, which has no treatment facilities of its own, sends its spent fuel rods.

This is the seventh such convoy from La Hague since 1995.

So far 32 containers have been stored at Gorleben, which has a capacity of 420. According to the company which organizes the freight, another 166 are due to be transported to the dump, 127 of them from La Hague and the remaining 39 from the British reprocessing facility at Sellafield.

At present, 12 containers are transported annually from La Hague. Six more are to be shipped every year from Sellafield from 2005.

With so many police on duty, the regional interior ministry calculates the cost of the security operation at 30 million euros (34 million dollars).

Copyright 2003 AFP

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