NORDENHAM / BIBLIS (dpa-AFX) – The police union (GdP) demands that the planned transport of Castor from the reprocessing plant in Sellafield, UK, to the Biblis interim storage facility in southern Hesse be canceled. “If the police are now expected to enforce the corona requirements and health protection more strongly, then from our point of view it is not compatible that a nuclear transport should be accompanied by the police across Germany at the beginning of November,” said GdP- Vice Jörg Radek of the German Press Agency. “There is no compelling reason for that.” Police forces who would then be deployed to secure the Castor transport could not be assigned to protect against infection at the same time, said the GdP vice-president.
In addition to the regulatory authorities, the police also help enforce the corona rules. According to their decision on Wednesday, the federal and state governments also want to use the federal police for health protection.
The transport of the six containers with highly radioactive waste from Sellafield, UK, was initially planned for spring. Due to the corona pandemic, it was postponed indefinitely in March. The Federal Ministry of the Interior did not consider the necessary police operation to be responsible. Opponents of nuclear power expect the transport to arrive at the port in Nordenham in Lower Saxony around the beginning of November.
Thousands of police officers from all over Germany were on duty during past Castor transports. Radek expects this to be the case again with the next transport. He demanded a cancellation and emphasized that health protection must have priority – after all, police officers are also at risk of infection.
It is not known exactly when the Castors will be brought to southern Hesse. The commissioned company for nuclear service (GNS) announced at the end of September that preparations for the transport from Great Britain had been resumed. According to a spokeswoman for the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE), the transport permit for the Castors is valid until December 31, 2020. The office is subordinate to the Federal Environment Ministry, which is in charge ./len/DP/stk
