At early morning hours last Saturday, a group of French and German anti-nuclear activists blocked the uranium transport train. The train, believed to carry 33 uranium containers, was travelling from Hamburg to the the Orano uranium conversion plant in Narbonne Malvesi in south of France.

The train track was blocked from about 5.30am, when two activists have climbed a 140 m high rail bridge near Koblenz in central Germany. The climbers were supported by a picket, including people with banners expressing solidarity with Hambach Forest protest camp. 

“As long as nuclear power plants are run and coal is burned, there will be resistance to transports and power generation from nuclear and fossil fuels. <span title=”Die damit verbundenen Umweltzerstörungen sind nicht hinnehmbar, deshalb werden wir wieder kommen.“, so eine Beteiligte.

“>The associated environmental damage is unacceptable,” said one activist who took part in the action.

The police arrived at the scene within 30 minutes, and in the meantime, the railway shut down the occupied track. Eventually, the protestors were taken off the bridge by the fire brigade, however, they did manage to delay the uranium train for about seven hours.

The blocked train carried “yellowcake”- a type of uranium concentrate- from Namibia. In Narbonne, uranium is processed and send to nuclear plants across the globe. The Narbonne plant processes 25% of the world’s uranium used in nuclear plants.

Photo: Uran Transport