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Protesters prepare for nuclear convoy
GORLEBEN, Germany -- Several thousand anti-nuclear protesters have begun the start of their planned opposition to a shipment of nuclear waste to a dump in northern Germany. The activists, who were joined by around 100 farmers and their tractors on Saturday, gathered for a rally near to the site at Gorleben where the shipment of 12 containers of reprocessed waste is expected to arrive within days. The shipment is making its way from a reprocessing plant at La Hague in France. Police estimated that 2,200 people took part, while organisers put the figure at more than 4,000. Anti-nuclear activists argue that neither the waste containers nor the dump, at a disused salt mine, are safe. The shipment is the first since last November when demonstrators repeatedly defied over 17,000 police to stage sit-down protests on the rails and the road along the route through Germany of 80 tonnes of nuclear waste. Up to 270 were arrested and almost 100 other were treated for injuries. As on previous occasions, authorities have banned demonstrations along the final stretch of the route to Gorleben during the shipment itself. Nuclear power is a controversial issue in Germany, where government and industry agreed last year to gradually to phase out all reactors by around 2025. Germany sends its nuclear waste to France and Britain for reprocessing, but has been slow to take it back for storage because of political wrangling over where to store it and safety issues over shipping it across Europe. Previous shipments have been hit by violence and disruption from Germany's anti-nuclear lobby. Germany resumed waste shipments last year, following a three-year break imposed by the previous government after radioactive leakage was discovered in some containers.
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