Nuclear Waste Makes it to Germany, By Gian Sexsmith

Nuclear Waste Makes it to Germany, By Gian Sexsmith                        

Germany has kept nuclear waste in the city of Gorleben for the past three decades. The past three decades protesters have tried to block transport of that waste. Some protesters have chained themselves to railroad tracks and blowing whistles. Officials said that this year is by far the largest group of protesters. The reason for the massive group of protesters is because the government has made the decision to make their seventeen nuclear plants keep going for another twelve years even though they were supposed to be shut down by 2020.

There were three days of protests that sometimes resulted with violent interactions with cops. The train that was being protested was carrying 123 tons of nuclear waste eventually arrived in Germany on Monday. The nuclear waste was reprocessed in France and was transferred to trucks that knew they were going to run into a final group of protesters. On Monday 4,000 protesters caused a twelve-hour delay by blocking the tracks not letting the train make its way to Dannenberg. Local farmers were using everything they could to try and block the roads, they were using sheep, goats and tractors. In the last three days 1,000 protesters have been arrested.

The reasoning for chancellor Angela Merkel and her associates to extend the nations nuclear plants was because it was necessary to preserve access to cheap energy as part of a comprehensive energy policy that included developing renewable resources.

In conclusion the government really wants to keep the nuclear power plants up and running and were willing to send out 20,000 police officers to make sure it gets done. They spent about $70 million on making sure everything happened according to plan. Even with all of that the protesters still managed to delay and delay the arrival of the nuclear waste. They did all they could to not let the nuclear waste make it to its final destination but it wasn’t enough.