arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

They report that on 6 April about 30 protesters almost stopped a 19-car train carrying depleted uranium from Gronau, Germany?s only uranium enrichment plant.

Udo Eichenplanke (at nixfaehrtmehr@gmx.de) wrote that the protesters were active in the evening in Steinfurt-Borghorst, Münster and Bad Bentheim.
He wrote that the depleted uranium is to be enriched in Russia and afterwards to be transported back to Gronau. "That means ample possibilities of blocking and stopping the things on the way back."

Another writer on German IndyMedia pointed out that three to four such transports happen every year. "Apparently it's very cost-effective to do the whole procedure with and in Russia, as it was officially pointed out to NDR radio."

"Congratulations! At last we're able to put a spanner in the Atom Mafia's works at its most vulnerable point!"

Udo Eichenplanke wrote that this was the first time the Münsterland region anti-atom initiatives were able to crack the secrecy around the nuclear transports to Russia and draw public attention to the dangerous cargo by several protest actions.

"A transport accident could contaminate huge areas." Depleted uranium is a waste product of the process that produces enriched uranium for use in atomic weapons and nuclear power plants. It is both toxic and radioactive. With its half-life of 4.5 billion years, the radioactivity of depleted uranium effectively lasts forever. ( http://www.iacenter.org/depleted/metal_leftbooks.htm)

These transports are licensed only by the German border police and the federal railways authority, Udo Eichenplanke points out. "They are carried out by the same company which this summer will try in vain to move 18 Castor transports from Dresden to Ahaus - Nuclear Cargo!" ( http://www.anti-atom.de/nuccargo.htm, more at http://www.wigatom.de and htpp://http://www.bi-ahaus.de).

Udo Eichenplanke's account of the near-stoppage: "In Steinfurt-Borghorst a big deployment of police including a fat chopper of the border police had closed off the railway station. Despite this several demonstrators managed to get on to the rails for a short time. Attracted by the large number of police, many onlookers also watched the atom train roll through at 7.45 p.m.

"In Münster there were two protest actions at the old freight station and directly in the main station. The border police seized and temporarily held one person in the first action.

"Between 8.40 and 9.25 p.m. the train stood for about 45 minutes at the level of Alfred-Krupp-Weg for shunting and ran twice through the Münster main station, unguarded by either railway or border police!

"In Bad Bentheim the atom train again stood more than 1 ½ hours in the station between 10.15 and 11.55 p.m. A spontaneous vigil of nuclear opponents formed at the rail-road crossing Nordring.

"At about midnight the extremely long train left Germany headed for Rotterdam, from where the nuclear cargo is shipped to Russia.

"So you see that there are enough points of attack to stop uranium transports. These are not yet as heavily guarded as Castor transports. These trains run all over the place without border police onboard, just with a driver!

"The anti-atomic initiatives have made plain with their actions that they are able to demonstrate against transports spontaneously at several places simultaneously.

"It is a scandal that the depleted uranium is delivered to Russia. Even depleted uranium can still be used for military purposes.

"The Gronau uranium enrichment plant must be closed down immediately, because in Gronau the atomic fuel is produced that keeps the atomic power stations running and is later to be brought to the Ahaus interim storage hall as highly radioactive waste.

"Anyone talking of getting out of nuclear power can't be allowed to promote the start of the atomic spiral.

"But up to now the Social Democrat-Greens government of North-Rhine Westphalia has approved every expansion of the Gronau uranium enrichment plant. That clearly contradicts the abandonment of nuclear power pledged by Social Democrats and Greens."
A licensing procedure for a massive expansion of Gronau is currently in progress. Environmentalists are demanding that the NRW government refuse the permit. The owners of the plant admitted just days ago to another disturbance in its operation..

Activist groups say they will step up their protests against transports to and from Gronau. They say the actions on 6 April were also the kick-off for the hot phase of resistance against the planned Castor transports from Dresden to Ahaus.


"We call on all to demonstrate against the highly controversial atomic transports on 18 April in Ahaus and on 2 May in Gronau at the respective Sunday Strolls." On 26 April at 6 p.m. there will be a large demonstration at Münster main railway station to mark the 18th anniversary of the Chernobyl meltdown. From 29 April to 2 May there will be a resistance weekend in Ahaus directly in front of the interim storage hall against the Dresden transports. On 30 April there will be a "Free&Outside Festival. (e-Mail:: nixfaehrtmehr@gmx.de ¦ Homepage:: http://www.nixfaehrtmehr.de.)
camp ikks reports that camping will be possible at the resistance camp from 29 April to 2 May. "It's on a good paddock and all facilities will be laid on. So come along!"
Meanwhile the NRW government has said it's preparing to litigate against the trucking of waste from Dresden-Rossendorf. It says it's asked a high-calibre lawyer to cheek out the juridical possibilities. "We want to exhaust all legal and political avenues to prevent the transports," said interior minister, Fritz Behrens, a Social Democrat.

The state of Saxony is determined to truck 951 spent fuel rods 600 km across Germany from Dresden to Ahaus. Behrens demanded that "the inner-German nuclear waste tourism" must end at last. He called the "unnecessary assignment of thousands of police" irresponsible. After the terrorist attacks in Madrid the police had more important things to do.

Social Democrat members of the federal parliament (Bundestag) from NRW have also spoken out against the transports to Ahaus. Their group leader, Hans-Peter Kemper, warned the Saxon government that solidarity between east and west Germany cannot be a "one-way street".

Kemper pointed out that there is at the decommissioned research reactor in Rossendorf a hall of the same construction as the one in Ahaus. The only difference was that it hadn't yet been licensed as an interim storage for the rods.

"Saxony can't just say 'we'll do without the licence and we'll send the stuff to North-Rhine Westphalia'," Kemper warned.

He said a run of more than 600 kilometres presents high security risks and enormous traffic disturbances. Policing would cost NRW 50 million euros.
The co-governing NRW Greens want to stop the transports by changing the law on giving up nuclear power. Their leaders in the state, Environment Minister Bärbel Höhn and Education Minister Michael Vesper, are demanding that if necessary the state should litigate in the supreme court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) and the highest administrative court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht).

Höhn and Vesper also demanded that the Social Democrats in the NRW government intervene with federal Social Democrat leaders to change the nuclear exist law so that it requires interim storages to be set up also for research facilities at their locations. This is of central importance to stopping transports, they say.

WigA has posted various possible routes from Rossendorf to Ahaus:
Variant A: Rossendorf-A4-Dresden-Chemnitz-Gera-Jena-Erfurt-Eisenach-A7-Kassel-A44-
Paderborn-Unna-A1-Kamen-A2-Recklinghausen-Gelsenkirchen-Bottrop-A31-Ahaus

Variant B: Rossendorf-A4-Dresden-A14-Leipzig-Halle-Magdeburg-A2-Braunschweig-Hannover-
Minden-Bad Oeynhausen-

Variant B1: Bielefeld-Hamm-Kamen-(onwards like A)

Variant B2: A30-Osnabrück-Bad Bentheim/Nordhorn-(Landstraße)-Ahaus

Transports can start from 27 May.

More information at http://www.wigatom.de; http://www.nixfaehrtmehr.de; http://www.bi-ahaus.de; homepage http://www.wigatom.de

Other anti-nuclear news:
- Information event on changing to non-nuclear power supply: http://www.stromwechsel-jetzt.de, Saturday, 17 April 2004, 5.00 to 6.30 p.m., in the "Lichtmesskino", Werkhof, Gaußstr. 17, in Hamburg-Altona (near W3), with Inge Borchers (Eurosolar Hamburg).

- Anti-atomic spring conference in Berlin, 16-18 April. Programme in PDF format:
http://www.akw-abschalten.claranet.de/reader_fraab04.pdf, homepage http://www.akw-abschalten.claranet.de.

German source stories at http://de.indymedia.org/2004/04/79612.shtml,
http://de.indymedia.org/2004/04/79569.shtml