BERLIN — German authorities said Tuesday they have approved a new shipment of radioactive waste this year to a dump in the north of the country that has been a focus of protests by the country’s vocal anti-nuclear lobby, according to a wire service.
The Federal Office for Radiation Protection gave permission for the transport of 12 containers of waste from a reprocessing plant at La Hague in France to the dump at Gorleben before the end of this year. No date has yet been set.
Anti-nuclear activists argue that neither the waste containers nor the dump, at a disused salt mine, are safe.
During the last shipment of waste to the site in November, demonstrators repeatedly defied some 17,500 police to stage sit-down protests on the rails and the road along the shipment’s route through Germany.
Spent fuel from Germany’s 19 nuclear power plants is sent to France and Britain for reprocessing under contracts that oblige Germany to take back the waste.
Germany resumed waste shipments a year ago, following a three-year break imposed by the previous government after radioactive leakage was discovered in some containers.
Also last year, the government and power companies signed an agreement to phase out nuclear power within about 20 years. Anti-nuclear activists hope that protests against the shipments will push up the security bill and force a quicker shutdown.