Anti-nuclear activists disrupt radioactive waste convoy in Germany

Anti-nuclear activists delayed a convoy transporting radioactive waste in western Germany overnight, leading to several arrests. 

Police said on Wednesday that three people were detained on the A31 motorway near Dorsten. 

The activists said they rappelled from a bridge near the Schermbeck interchange, carrying a banner reading "Stop this crap." 

"Today's climbing protest is part of a creative and diverse protest movement," the activists said in a statement.

Germany has a long history of protests against nuclear energy. While the country turned off its last nuclear power plants in 2023, the storage and transport of radioactive waste remains a highly contentious issue.

In 2014, authorities in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia deemed a storage site in Jülich, west of Cologne, to be unsuitable due to the risk of earthquakes, with a new facility eventually found 170 kilometres to the north in Ahaus, close to the Dutch border.

Waste is still being transported between the two sites on heavy-goods vehicles, drawing occasional protests from anti-nuclear activists. The shipments are known in Germany as Castor, short for "cask for storage and transport of radioactive material."

Police said the latest convoy - the 23rd to depart from Jülich - was delayed by the protests as traffic was diverted from the motorway, eventually reaching Ahaus early on Wednesday. 

The North Rhine-Westphalia Economics Ministry has warned it could take until mid-2028 for the last nuclear waste container to reach its destination.