Eight Castor Nuclear Waste Container
One of eleven Castor (Cask of storage and Transport
of Radioactive material) nuclear waste containers is lifted from a train onto a
truck at an embarking station.
Two girls have their faces fainted with the symbol for nuclear radiation as they attend a demostration by pupils from a local school againts the unsafe storage of nuclear waste
A masked environment activist throws fireworks to the police during protest
On November 23, a train carrying 11 tubular containers of highly radioactive nuclear waste departed Normandy, France. The nuclear waste, which originated in German reactors years ago and was processed for storage by a French firm, is now bound for a temporary storage facility in a former salt mine near Gorleben, Germany. The 750-mile trip has taken far longer than anticipated, due to thousands of protesters causing disruptions along the way. Staging sit-ins, chaining themselves to the rails, and even sabotaging the railway, demonstrators are denouncing the transportation of dangerous material through populated areas. This is the last of 12 contractually obligated shipments of nuclear waste from France. France has forecast this activist will swarm Germany when the train enters and had alerted them on the activist activity. Therefore Germany had deployed 19.000 police to secure the shipment route are and hundreds of demonstrators were removed from railroads. Germany recently pledged a complete phase-out of nuclear power within a decade and has already shut down 8 of its 17 reactors.
The protesters who claimed themselves as Greenpeace had already crossed the boundry. The peaceful protest they claimed had turned to violent action by chaining themselves to the rails, sabotaging the railway and throwing fireworks to the police. From my point of view, I understand the concern and need for protest but isn't there a potential for a derailment and nuclear spill if the demonstrators are sabotaging the rails? That would lead to negative press and the complete opposite of the outcome they hope to achieve. They should realize that the most important thing is to let the shipment reached final destination without any accident.
All pictures taken from: http://www.theatlantic.com,
No comments:
Post a Comment