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The Gronau uranium train that came from nowhere
SOFA Münster - 08.12.2006 07:41
Uranium trains, like all nuclear transports, are strictly secret. But gradually the protest movement is picking up on the uranium transports from and to the uranium enrichment plant at Gronau, near Münster in Germany. On Wednesday evening activists in the northern Ruhr region were able to spot a train with seven cars laden with uranium hexafluoride (UF6) from Pierrelatte in southern France headed for Gronau.
Uranium and passengers trains side by side.
Waioting to head on to Gronau.
Almost invisible radioactivity signage on French train.
This sparked spontaneous protest actions in Waltrop, Hamm, Ahaus and Gronau. It was the second time in three weeks that anti-nuclear groups were able to discover a uranium transport in the dead of night and publicise it.
The uranium transports from southern France are the lifeblood for Germany’s only uranium enrichment plant. That gives them strategic importance in the German atomic programme.
For a long time it was thought too difficult to protest against these transports because of sparse intelligence. Actions only succeeded occasionally.
In 1999 there was a larger, very successful blockade directly outside the Gronau plant; in 2003 police were able to move a transport forward by 24 hours to avoid protesters.
But since nuclear waste transports from Gronau to Russia have stirred greater public interest, things have started to move as well between Pierrelatte and Gronau.
There are now initiatives and interested individuals working in 20 towns along the route and their numbers grow after every train sighting. Especially important in the resistance is the transnational cooperation with French nuclear opponents (see www.urantransport.de).
The media today were also very interested in the uranium transports and the protests.
On the German side the route runs from the border crossing point Perl-Apach through Trier-Koblenz-Bonn-Köln-Düsseldorf-Duisburg-Oberhausen-Bottrop-Gladbeck-Recklinghausen-Waltrop-Lünen-Hamm-Lünen-Lüdinghausen-Dülmen-Coesfeld-Ahaus-Gronau.
After the successful cross-regional observation of a UF6 train three weeks ago, at about 11.40 pm on Wednesday activists sighted the uranium train in Waltrop.
At 00.05 am it rolled into Hamm freight station, where a spontaneous protest formed immediately.
The UF6 cars were unhooked from the normal freight train and were left for the night in the huge shunting yards (without recognisable police protection!).
In the morning the cars went back and after a long stop in Lünen-Süd, continued via the single track route to Gronau.
At every second station the uranium train passed passenger trains (see pictures).
It is important to note for the observation that only very small radioactivity emblems are affixed low on the chassis which makes them practically invisible from a distance and in the dark.
The anti-nuclear initiatives in the Rhineland, Ruhr region and Münsterland will continue their campaign against the UF6 transports in a well-targeted manner – there is no quiet hinterland!
More information at www.mega-waltrop.de, www.antiatombonn.de, www.bi-ahaus.de, www.aktionsbuendnis-muensterland.de.
Russian protest stirring
In regard to the transports to Russia, demonstrations are now reported from distant Siberia against Urenco, the British-German-Dutch company that owns the Gronau plant and several others in those three countries.
On Sunday 3 December 250 nuclear opponents demonstrated in Irkutsk at Lake Baikal against the nearby nuclear factory in Angarsk and against the importation of depleted uranium from Gronau and from other countries.
Because the action was so successful, another is to follow in Irkutsk on 16 December.
Activist groups there are also thinking about joining a group legal action against Urenco on charges of illegal nuclear waste exportation to Russia.
Urenco (and its German parent companies, power producers RWE and E.ON) need plenty of pressure from all sides to disrupt the uranium enrichment.
For an immediate end to all nuclear installations worldwide!
 SPAMFREI.sofa-ms@web.de  http://www.sofa-ms.de
(Translated by Diet Simon in Australia.)
 Website: http://www.mega-waltrop.de, www.antiatombonn.de, www.bi-ahaus.de, www.aktionsbuendnis-muensterland.de
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