Protests precede German nuclear shipment

Protests also dogged the last shipment to France

German environmental activists have begun protests against the sending of a shipment of spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing in Britain.

Twelve people chained themselves to railway tracks in the western town of Mannheim, to stop carriages from being used for the transport, due to begin on Monday evening.

The managers of the power stations who are sending their nuclear waste to Sellafield are unscrupulous

Greenpeace spokesman

Police said they had unchained and removed the protesters by early afternoon, but more demonstrations are expected.

The protesters will be charged with dangerous interference in rail transport, an offence that could mean a fine or a jail sentence of up to five years.

The fuel is being transported from power stations at Neckarwestheim and Biblis to the Sellafield reprocessing plant in north-west England.

It will be the first such shipment to Britain for more than three years.

The move follows the resumption earlier this month of nuclear shipments to France for reprocessing.

'Irresponsible politicians'

Five containers are expected to be shipped from the two power stations.

Sellafield has also been a centre of controversy

Demonstrations have been banned along the route of the shipment.

A spokesman for the environmental pressure group Greenpeace, Veit Buerger, described managers of power stations sending the waste as "unscrupulous" and said politicians who approved the transports were "acting irresponsibly".

A hostile reaction is also expected in the UK when the shipments arrive, although it is not clear what form any protest will take.

The Sellafield plant itself has been the centre of controversy for many years.

In 1957 a reactor at the site was the scene of Britain's worst nuclear accident, and there have been long-standing accusations that its waste water has contaminated sea life.

And the plant was prosecuted twice last year for breaches to safety rules.

Water cannon was used against previous protests

The shipment will meet resistance among environmental campaign groups who recently protested against nuclear waste exports from Germany to a reprocessing plant in France, and against reprocessed fuel returning to Germany.

More than a third of Germany's electricity comes from its 19 nuclear reactors, which generate hundreds of tonnes of radioactive waste a year.

But German nuclear facilities do not have the space to store the used fuel within the country.

Spent German nuclear fuel is sent abroad for reprocessing, but the contracts oblige Germany to take back the resulting waste.