Greenpeace activists broke into a nuclear waste storage center Friday where they unfurled a banner calling on France to cancel plans to ship nuclear waste to the site, a spokesman for the environmental group said.
He said activists climbed the 30-meter-high (90-foot) surveillance tower at the center in Gorleben, northern Germany, where they hung a banner saying "Stop the Castor," referring to the nuclear waste containers.
Greenpeace said in a statement the militants used a ladder to breach the outer wall of the compound.
Police said seven militants who entered the center at about 0500 GMT had been arrested. But another 20 were still camped in the tower and had sleeping bags and food. "They are settling in for a long occupation," a spokesman said.
The center is scheduled to receive the first containers of reprocessed nuclear waste from France following a three-year suspension.
The exact date of the transfer is not known, but Greenpeace said the train carrying the containers would cross the German border during the night of March 26 to 27.
The French nuclear reprocessing firm COGEMA said Thursday that 28 containers with reprocessed nuclear waste that are to be sent back to Gorbelen between March 25 and April 8 were moved Thursday to the company's rail terminal at Valognes in northern France from its plant in the nearby town of La Hague.
According to an agreement between the two governments, 112 containers of reprocessed nuclear waste will be sent back to Germany during the next 10 years.
The transport of nuclear waste between the two countries was suspended in 1998 following a string of protests, notably from German ecologists -- GORLEBEN, Germany (AFP).
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
