Activists protest over French ‘nuclear train’

Anti-nuclear activists are protesting as a train carrying highly radioactive waste prepares to cross France en route to a German storage facility.

Demonstrators fear the transport is a major accident waiting to happen.

“The French government, like every government, has not learned the lessons of Fukushima,” said demonstrator Jean-Francois Mouchel. “Nuclear energy is dangerous, it is dirty, it is rotten. It is not renewable energy. We are not energy independent. Nuclear energy is rotten.”

The train is due to leave Valognes in Normandy within hours, bound for the German town of Gorleben. Some protesters want to block its path.

The waste carried in the 11 containers originally comes from German nuclear plants but was reprocessed in France. As it was driven to the rail terminal for departure, French nuclear giant Areva repeated its insistence that the transport is safe.

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