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"Stop transports and uranium enrichment"
Arbeitskreis Umwelt (AKU) Gronau - 12.11.2004 19:00
German activists are demanding that the North-Rhine Westphalian regional government stop all nuclear transports in the state and the planned massive expansion of Germany’s only uranium enrichment plant at Gronau. The following is a translation of a media release by Arbeitskreis Umwelt AKU) Gronau.
North-Rhine Westphalia must stop uranium transports now
Mourning vigil outside Gronau railway station
"The state government of NRW can be credible only if it also stops the many uranium transports in and through NRW!” These brief but fitting words are the response of the civic action group, "Arbeitskreis Umwelt (AKU) Gronau", to the announcement that nuclear waste transports from Rossendorf to Ahaus are not to be carried out still in 2004 [ http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/98537.shtml].
The Land NRW cannot and must not be allowed to wash its hands of it if it now ostensibly rejects Castor transports from Rossendorf to Ahaus, but remains silent on all other transports. The Arbeitskreis Umwelt (AKU) Gronau criticises that in the past the Land NRW has always smoothly licensed the expansion of the only uranium enrichment plant in Germany at Gronau in Westphalia.
With that the state government has practically also always licensed the uranium transports connected with the plant, although it is not the directly responsible licensing authority. Thus recently the construction of a haulage assembly hall next to the enrichment plant was permitted by Düsseldorf without problems; the Gronau population was not brought into the licensing procedure. And currently the Land NRW is also in charge of a licensing procedure for the applied-for expansion of the entire plant whose capacity is to be extremely increased.
Additionally a so-called interim storage for about 60,000 tonnes of uranium oxide is to be built in Gronau. There are many indications that the Land NRW intends to approve the plans against the protection interests of the population.
With that, Gronau, NRW and other regions are threatened with 2,270 truck trips per year with uranium or the equivalent of 840 railway cars carrying uranium. (Source: Urenco Deutschland, operator of the Gronau enrichment plant.)
In 2003 more than 7,000 objections were filed against the plans to expand the enrichment plant. The anti-nuclear movement has been emphasising for some time that the uranium enrichment in Gronau ultimately worsens the nuclear waste problem. Uranium being processed in Gronau to operate atomic power stations in the end lands again in atomic waste depots like Ahaus, Gorleben or others.
Hence – with the blessing of the NRW government – Ahaus is threatened with further atomic waste transports, if the uranium transports are left out of the equation and the Gronau enrichment plant continues operation and should even be enlarged.
Moreover, enormous amounts of depleted uranium pile up in Gronau which is then railed to Russia in special trains of up to 20 cars.
In the view of the Arbeitskreises Umwelt Gronau the state government would only become credible if it stopped the uranium haulage in and through NRW, broke off the licensing procedure for expanding the Gronau enrichment plant and ordered the immediate closure of the plant under its powers as the licensing authority (energy ministry).
In addition to the countless uranium transports now running in connection with the Gronau enrichment plant, the Land NRW is also affected by uranium haulage from and to the fuel rod factory in Lingen, Lower Saxony. The Land NRW must not tolerate these transports, either, for the sake of the protection of the population. But Düsseldorf remains silent.
In memory of the demonstrator killed
In memory of the French opponent of atomic power killed on Sunday by the Castor transport to Gorleben, activists held a vigil outside Gronau railway station on Wednesday evening (10.11). They also appealed for donations for the relatives of the dead man. (All donations sent with the purpose designation "Luneville" to the account of the Bundesverband Bürgerinitiativen Umweltschutz (BBU) e. V. will be passed on to the family of the man killed. Account: Sparkasse Bonn, BLZ 380.500.00, account 1900.2666).
The vigil also demonstrated against the haulage of uranium from France to the Gronau enrichment plant by trains shunted in Gronau station. If there were an accident with massive emission of uranium hexafluoride in Gronau station, the entire Gronau town centre in a radius of several kilometres would have to be evacuated.
Further information at www.aku-gronau.de or telephone 02562-23125. Arbeitskreis Umwelt (AKU) Gronau – member of Bundesverband Bürgerinitiativen Umweltschutz, c/o Siedlerweg, 748599 Gronau.
(Translated by Diet Simon)
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| Read more about: natuur, dier en mens | | supplements | | | All the Gorleben coverage in English | x - 13.11.2004 12:59
CAUTION! You are leaving the democratic sector, Gorleben police state ahead!
Hundreds of tonnes more of highly radioactive waste have just been hauled thousands of kilometres across France and Germany to an “interim” storage hall near the north German village of Gorleben. A French student of 21 died after the nuclear train ran over him in France. He had tried to stop it by chaining himself to the track. At http://germany.indymedia.org/2004/11/98698.shtml is a collation of coverage in English of this year’s Gorleben protests, as published on the German IndyMedia site. It also contains some other anti-nuclear protest news that appeared there recently in English.
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