A 23-year-old man has died in France as he protested against the Castor train taking nuclear waste to Germany. The train cut off both his legs. some police-man seemed to be almost "happy" about his dead and were very arrogant towards the protesters. afterwards many attacks with bottles ezc. against police

BACKGROUND FROM IMC Global
this weekend about 10.000 protested the castor train carrying nuclear waste to germany. As a train carrying nuclear waste runs through France destined for north Germany, a superior court there has forbidden demonstrations along the route in the wider area of Gorleben, the dump where the waste is headed.

The Oberverwaltungsgericht (OVG) Lüneburg overturned a ruling by a lower court that quashed a general ban issued by the regional government authority. The OVG upheld the assembly ban of the Bezirksregierung Lüneburg (file 11 ME 322/04), saying said that during the Castor transport there is a “police emergency”. For the legal mumbo jumbo in German see  http://www.lawchannel.de/index2_full.php?feed=11390.
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The train taking 12 Castor caskets of nuclear waste to Gorleben in north Germany left Valognes, northern France, at 9.05 pm. Saturday. It consists of two diesel locomotives (green), two passenger carriages, 12 Castor waggons, another passenger carriage, another diesel locomotive (green).
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A French activist,  Jean-Yvon.Landrac@gmx.net, has reported to activists in southwest Germany that the train appears to be using false freight papers downplaying the intensity of the radioactivity. He says he’s trying to find some in the safety authorities to have the train stopped legally. The caskets are labelled "combustibles usés" (spent fuel elements), whereas the correct labelling for the glass-encased waste of this consignment has to be "DHA" (Déchets hautement actifs – highly active waste). Because the labelling is false, Landrac writes, railway staff can call an "avis d'alerte" (warning) which would stop the train until matters were cleared up. Landrac needs to find someone available at the CSHCT (Commission de Sécurité, d'Hygiène et des Conditions de Travail) but thinks it’s doubtful at this time of day and tomorrow being Sunday. Jean-Yvon Landrac, Réseau "Sortir du nucléaire", Tel./Fax: 00 33 2 99 77 31 70, mobile 00 33 6 99 56 29 67.
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Anti-nuclear activists report more people, more tractors and apparently more courage and rage opposing this year’s consignment. A post at  http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97546.shtml says a start-up rally in nearby Dannenberg, the railhead, has exceeded all expectations. It claims between 5,000 and 6,000 protesters – more than last year. Most mainstream media agree with the figure. The number is even being used by the police – who’re also in the county in their thousands. Organisers had said earlier they’d be satisfied with 3,000. “It appears that against all expectations the resistance is growing again,” says the post. Pictures at  http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97571.shtml. More pictures and information also at  http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97607.shtml.
People are moving into resistance camps in south Germany and the Gorleben area and preparing for the rail and truck consignment.

In recent weeks and months police actions in previous nuclear waste transports were often criticised by courts. Headlines indicate the trend: “Police act illegally”, “Police action illegal again,” “Police action again criticised”, “Inhuman encirclement” or “Castor opponents released too late” (sourced from the local ELbe-Jeetzel Zeitung newspaper).

An administrative court has overturned a general ban on demonstrating at and on the transport route in the Gorleben area. Every case has to be decided on its merits, “a great improvement on recent years.”

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About 150 people demonstrated at Wiesental train station near the Philippsburg atomic power station Saturday afternoon. Despite a ban, they crossed the transport route, tolerated by police, although they took down some names. Karlsruhe county has banned demonstrations in a 100-metre wide corridor along the transport route. Activists see good chances of getting the ban overturned, as happened to a similar one issued in Lüneburg and overturned by the administrative court there. “The fact that police tolerated our infringement shows how senseless the ban is – it was just meant to intimidate anti-nuclear activists,” said local organisers. A stroll is planned along the rails on Sunday, in the direction the Castor train will be coming from. More information from.  http://www.castor-stoppen.de,  http://neckarwestheim.antiatom.de or  http://www.castor.de, Phillip Hofmeister and Eric Tschöp, mobile 0160 - 992 181 52, fax: 012 12 - 579 235 490, e-mail:  presse-sw@gmx.de,  http://www.castor-stoppen.de.

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Warm accommodation, vegan meals and up to date information are offered to visiting activists by the Hitzacker-Camp am See, open since Thursday 4 November. It’s on the "Seewiese" by the Archäologisches Zentrum in Hitzacker. Accommodation is in heated tents or with host families in Hitzacker. Children welcome – there are some special events for them and there’s a playground right next door. e-mail:  camp-hitzacker@gmx.de, homepage:  http://www.castorgruppehitzacker.tk, address: "Seewiese" Hitzacker, phone: 05862 – 941409.

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Hundreds of people took part in demonstrations by school pupils on Friday. In nearby Lüneburg it was even c. 1,000 (pictures and more information about the Lüneburg action at  http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97523.shtml). In Lüchow, the administrative centre of Lüchow-Dannenberg county, where Gorleben is located, police were attacked with eggs. Police have to expect more massive resistance the closer the transport gets to Gorleben.  http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97514.shtml

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A policeman’s hand was injured in a demonstration involving farm tractors on Friday. Police blame demonstrators, while the anti-nuclear civic action group in Luechow, BI, says the policeman was careless. It also rejected police allegations that activists injured two police horses, saying the riders forced them to trot on a railway bridge, causing them to slip and fall on its metal plates.  http://de.news.yahoo.com/041105/12/4a6q1.html

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Near the Dutch border, at Gronau, the site of Germany's only uranium enrichment plant (  http://germany.indymedia.org/2004/09/93964.shtml), German and Dutch anti-nuclear activists will be watching out for trains that may be taking depleted uranium to Rotterdam for onshipment to Russia. The activists think the operators may try to use the Gorleben activities as cover. Legal action by Dutch activists has stopped expansion of a Urenco sister plant at Almelo and this success is to be discussed at meetings in Gronau.  http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97508.shtml

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The Greens’ youth wing is calling for large numbers of people to take part in non-violent resistance against the transport.  http://www.pressrelations.de/index.cfm?start_url=http%3A//www.pressrelations.de/search/release.cfm%3Fr%3D173126%26style%3D

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The entire village of Metzingen near Gorleben has declared itself a resistance camp. An info point opened up Friday afternoon. Camp-Tel: 0162 - 886 35 94. Directions on how to get there and more information at  http://goehrde.plentyfact.net/ Homepage::  http://goehrde.plentyfact.net

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The Lower Saxony environment ministry says “extensive radiation measurements will again take place” of the transport “to protect the population and the accompanying personnel”.  http://www.pressrelations.de/index.cfm?start_url=http%3A//www.pressrelations.de/search/release.cfm%3Fr%3D173119%26style%3D

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BUND, the German section of Friends of the Earth International, has called on the government to table a final repository law before the end of the year. Two legislative periods had passed without progress in searching for a final nuclear waste dump and things hadn’t advanced since the Social Democrat Greens coalition took power, BUND said.  http://www.mysan.de/article25169.html

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Civic action groups in the state of Lower Saxony, where Gorleben is located, have challenged the legality of the transports. Their joint media release is at  http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97411.shtml.

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Salt deposits like the one in Gorleben are unsuitable for storing nuclear waste, say experts. Geophysicist Nikolai Gestermann explained to the «Berliner Zeitung» newspaper that because salt is lighter than the sand and clay layers above it, it presses upwards – comparable to an air bubble in honey. “In my view a salt deposit is therefore unsuitable for an atomic waste repository that has to be safe for hudreds of thousands of years.”  http://de.news.yahoo.com/041106/336/4a75a.html Anti-nuclear activists allege that German federal and regional governments and the nuclear industry are planning to use the Gorleben salt deposit as a final dump regardless, although exploratory mining of it has been stopped after scientific advice. They say every waste consignment into the “interim storage” hall in Gorleben makes permanent storage in the salt more likely. See on this  http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/tagesthema/392695.html and  http://www.taz.de/pt/2004/11/06/a0151.nf/text.ges,1