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Dresden anti-CASTOR transport group formed
Various - 14.02.2004 01:56
Activists have formed a group in Dresden to resist transportation of nuclear waste caskets more than 600 kilometres across Germany to Ahaus near the Dutch border.
"Wir stellen uns quer - we will stand in the way!"
About 20 people from various groups met on Friday 6 February to organise the resistance against transports, probably by road, expected to begin in March. They’ve given themselves the name “Aktionsbündnis Castor-Stop Dresden” (Dresden Castor Stop Action Alliance).
The highly active was is now in the grounds of the former research centre of Rossendorf, about 12 km from Dresden.
On February the Aktionsbündnis is organising a Sunday Stroll at the gate of the centre. Meet at 3 p.m. in Rossendorf. (2.15 h bus line 261 from Dresden Hauptbahnhof to stop Sebnitz in Rossendorf Siedlung.)
For an “autobahn day” on 28 February the Bündnis is additionally mobilising many small and large actions to draw attention to the problem of nuclear waste and the ways it’s being dealt with.
For the transportation day, Day X, the Bündnis is calling for creative resistance and civil disobedience along the entire route.
A jointly coordinated Castor Stop Action and creative individual actions in Dresden – Rossendorf are being planned.
No Castor transports! To anywhere! Switch off atomic power stations now! Choose alternative power supplies!
Aktionsbündnis Castor-Stop Dresden
(Grüne Liga Dresden, ecodefense, Greenpeace Dresden, Grüne Jugend Dresden, Arbeitskreis gegen Atomanlagen Dresden, Anti-Atom-Netzwerk Sachsen, Umweltzer, Projektwerkstatt Striesen, Anti-Atom-Gruppe Tharandt)
Background (status 1 February 04)
Indications are increasing that in the first half of this year Castor caskets of waste are to move from Rossendorf for “interim storage” in Ahaus. What is this about and why does the anti-nuclear movement oppose these transports?
The "Rossendorfer Forschungsreaktor RFR", a WWR-SM reactor type, had a capacity of 10 MWth and was started up on 16 December 1957. Operation was ended on 27 June 1991 and the still ongoing shutdown started on 30 January 1998. The operator is VKTA located in Rossendorf (Saxony).
Throughout the reactor’s existence there has been no concept for disposing of its waste. Radioactive materials were used in a variety of ways, for example in the production of isotopes.
After the end of the GDR in 1991 industrial-scale isotope production and reactor operations were ended. In 1993 the Saxony state government had to decide the final closure of the reactor because under all-German law it failed to meet licensing criteria.
All the fuel rods spent in 34 years of operation remain in Rossendorf - 951 in all. Since 1999 they have been stored in 18 Castor caskets of the MTR-2 type in a hall especially built for their transportation out.
The hall, which cost 20 million euros to build, is part of what is officially called the high-security tract in Rossendorf, where in addition to the Castors up to 2,000 smaller items of highly radioactive and nuclear fuel containing materials are stored under guard. This includes 4.5 tonnes of thorium which as a non-radiating and therefore non-self-protecting nuclear fuel has to be guarded strictly.
Also in the Rossendorf research centre grounds are medium-radioactive leftovers from the operation and demolition of the isotope production and the state collection point for weakly radioactive wastes of the states of Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt. The medium and weakly radioactive wastes from the demolition of the reactor still to be carried out are also to be deposited in Rossendorf.
There is in Germany no licensed final storage – not for highly radioactive nor for medium or low radioactive waste. That means the research centre will for decades to come remain a storage depot needing strict guarding.
The transports out of Castors now being discussed are more of a prestige project for the Saxony government than an actual need and moreover contradict the “user remedies” principle according to which nuclear waste has to be kept where it was produced.
Permits for transportation to and storage in the Ahaus interim depot hall are still outstanding. They’re in the jurisdiction of the Federal Environment Ministry and its subordinate Federal Agency for Radiation Protection (Bundesamt für Strahlenschutz, BfS).
Up to now the transport-readying hall in Rossendorf has an open-ended permit to handle irradiated nuclear fuels. But it’s not a licence for the next 100 years!
There are only two ways out of this conflict:
Option 1: Transport out – wanted by the Rossendorf operators and the Saxon government – or
Option 2: Application for a permit to operate the Rossendorf hall as an interim storage depot for spent fuel rods – which is what we in the anti-nuclear movement want.
In this licensing procedure the hall in Rossendorf would be tested for security against a plane crash under the latest criteria (impact of an airliner containing a great deal of kerosene). The similarly built hall in Ahaus is also undergoing these tests at the moment. The Rossendorf hall could also pass this test.!
The new licensing under § 6 AtG has to be applied for by the Rossendorf operator (which is in fact the state of Saxony) from the BfS. But Saxony obviously has no interest in doing this while the BfS is not permitted to actively anticipate such an application.
We demand:
1. No CASTOR transports to Ahaus!
The planned CASTOR transportation to Ahaus is senseless because the security of storage in Ahaus is no greater than now in Rossendorf. And at € 1.5 million it is expensive, costing money better spent on seeking an interim storage licence for the Rossendorf transport readying hall.
The Saxon state government has since 1994 wasted € 73,000 a year to reserve storage space in Ahaus, putting itself under transportation pressure, at a time when public moneys are extremely scarce.
Moreover, nuclear transports cause additional risks to people living along the route and accompanying personnel. Even without an accident these people are subjected to higher irradiation risks. Recent studies show that the risks from neutron radiation out of CASTOR caskets are many times greater than hitherto assumed. Another reason why transportation of Rossendorf CASTORS by road or rail to Ahaus is irresponsible!
2. Application for an interim storage licence under § 6 AtG
Storage in Ahaus does not increase storage safety in any way because both halls are similar in construction (concrete light construction). The guarding and securing of the CASTOR depots are also equal in both places.
Ahaus, too, is only an interim storage where the waste can’t stay forever. It will have to be moved again away from Ahaus, either to a final repository – and no such thing is yet in sight – or back to Rossendorf. The state of Saxony has contractually committed itself to taking the nuclear waste back after a maximum of 40 years.
That is why demand that an application be made for an interim storage licence and testing the existing Rossendorf transport readying hall under state-of-the art standards for the 18 CASTORS under § 6 AtG.
The CASTOR caskets must stay in Rossendorf until a safe final storage is available in Germany!
We do not want to shove our nuclear waste on to other people for a time. The people in Ahaus have fought for years against the storage of nuclear waste in their town. It must not be allowed to offload on to them the nuclear waste that was produced here in Rossendorf. The Saxon atomic waste must for now stay and be securely interim-stored in Rossendorf.
The anti-atomic movement will resist this CASTO transport as it has done up to now in Gorleben and Ahaus. We will forge a broad alliance to put pressure behind our demands.
Actions will soon be happening again outside the gates of the Rossendorf Research Centre!
Dates to mark:
15 February: Sunday Stroll in Ahaus
22 February: Sunday Stroll in Rossendorf
Planned for end of February: Joint meeting and actions by anti-nuclear activists from Ahaus and Saxony in Rossendorf
26 February: The Münster Upper Administrative Court hears the applications for Ahaus (1st & 2nd Alteration Permit) – only after this can decisions be made about transportation and storage of the Rossendorf Castors.
28 February: Nationwide "Autobahn Action Day” along the possible routes between Dresden and Ahaus
Ende February/ Early March: Castor Alarm!!!
e-Mail::  info@castorstopp-dresden.de ¦ Homepage::  http://www.castorstopp-dresden.de ¦
Other postings
WigA:More on the Autobahn Action Day at www.nixfaehrtmehr.de e-Mail:: nixfaehrtmehr@gmx.de Homepage:: http://www.nixfaehrtmehr.de
Himo: Last week a CASTOR from north German nuclear power stations again rolled through Münster. There were various vigils and small actions. Although they couldn’t stop the CASTOR this time, they did keep a hundred cops on the move and so made sure that the shipment didn’t go through unnoticed. To do things differently with the neXt AHAUS04-Castor, the Resistance has to give an early signal and show action! This will soon make clear to the Atomic Mafia that a road transport from Dresden to Ahaus will not be able to take place. That is why many groups decided in recent weeks to launch a nationwide Autobahn Action Day to carry the Resistance straight to the transport route. Join in! Look in! (www.nixfaehrtmehr.de) Do actions! The struggle goes on!
Clear signals for the immediate switching off of all atomic installations are to be set at as many places as possible along the route.
Clearly, the CASTOR will find it very difficult to roll on the autobahn to Ahaus because people will be resisting at very many places. The action day of small, creative, decentralised actions are to inform, to mobilise and to make ourselves fit for Day X.
Thoughtfulness and caution are needed. Under no circumstances are people to be endangered.
But should the CASTOR be driven on the autobahn, it is clear that the autobahn will also be an action and demonstration space.
The entire action is of a very open, spontaneous nature. Everyone is called upon to contribute ideas.
For example, it takes relatively few people to achieve much attention for example at entrances, bridges or rest houses.
Day X – many places – one goal!
The possible later transport routes are:
# Dresden-Chemnitz-Erfurt-Kassel-Dortmund-Recklinghausen-Ahaus
# Dresden-Leipzig-Magdeburg-Braunschweig-Hannover-Osnabrück-Ahaus.
615km of road transport from Rossendorf to Ahaus are simply predestined to attracting resistance at many points. After all, everyone knows their front yard best. People from remoter areas can join locals or make themselves comfortable along the route with their own infrastructure.
So, off and forward!!!
AHAUS04: Our neXt victorySieg!
e-Mail:: nixfaehrtmehr@gmx.de ¦ Homepage:: http://www.nixfaehrtmehr.de ¦
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