Police guard German nuclear train

Thousands of police guarded the shipment on its journey

A train carrying nuclear waste has reached its destination in Germany under massive police protection.

Around 6,500 police officers guarded the track between the nuclear plant at Rheinsberg and the storage dump in Lubmin.

Protesters, who seriously disrupted three other nuclear shipments through Germany this year, did not succeed in seriously affecting the train's progress.

The 600m-long train was carrying 246 spent fuel rods from the Soviet-built plant.

Demolition

The rods were removed to allow the complete demolition of the plant, which was closed in 1990 as it no longer met federal safety standards following German reunification.

Water cannon was used against previous protests

Demonstrations were banned for 50m on either side of the tracks, but there were minor protests nonetheless.

Environmentalists staged a small sit-in and trees were laid across the tracks.

These were quickly dealt with by police officers and the train moved on unhindered.

The last shipment of nuclear waste - from Germany to the reprocessing plant in Sellafield in the UK - was severely disrupted by protesters, who chained themselves to the tracks.

Their aim is to make the cost of transporting nuclear waste so prohibitively high that the government will be forced to stop them.

The German Government resumed shipments this year after a three-year ban due to safety fears.