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Lower Saxony wants to postpone Castor transport due to Corona

2020-10-20T14:55:13.619Z


Due to rising corona numbers, Lower Saxony considers the Castor transport planned for November to be too dangerous. According to SPIEGEL information, Interior Minister Pistorius has now written to the federal government.


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Police officers secure a Castor transport on the way to Wendland (archive photo)

Photo: imago images / localpic

According to SPIEGEL information, Lower Saxony wants to postpone the Castor transport through Germany planned for the beginning of November at the last moment.

In a letter to Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU), Lower Saxony Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) asked on Tuesday "that the transport and the associated operational measures be postponed again".  

In the letter, Pistorius describes that he had "intensively discussed" the police operation to secure the transport with his authorities and had come to a "reassessment".

Accordingly, the transport is currently "not justifiable" because of the corona pandemic.

Pistorius asked Seehofer to discuss the situation again in his ministry and to make a decision on how to proceed. 

"Increased risk of infection for the emergency services"

According to SPIEGEL information, the authorities had planned to transport a total of six Castor containers with radioactive waste from the British reprocessing plant in Sellafield to Germany in the first week of November.

They should first be brought by ship to Nordenham in Lower Saxony and then by train to the nuclear power plant in Biblis in Hesse.  

Because of the expected protests from opponents of nuclear power, the state police authorities had already mobilized thousands of officers and planned the transport extensively.

In his letter to Seehofer, Pistorius warns that the deployment of so many police officers would result in an "increased risk of infection for the emergency services" despite an already planned hygiene concept. 

Pistorius goes on to say that simply by pulling together emergency services from different federal states, there is an increased risk of infections among officials.

In addition, the planned transport will lead through many areas that are already exceeding the critical incidence of infections.

The federal government must now decide how to deal with the situation.

In principle, Germany is obliged under international law to take back the fuel rods from German nuclear reactors that have been processed in Sellafield.

Pistorius asks Seehofer to find a solution that takes these obligations and the corona situation into account.

He was "ready to talk" at any time.

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Source: spiegel

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