German police said Thursday they had foiled a suspected attempt to disrupt the journey of a shipment of nuclear waste to a hotly disputed storage site, where it is expected next week.
BERLIN — German police said Thursday they had foiled a suspected attempt to disrupt the journey of a shipment of nuclear waste to a hotly disputed storage site, where it is expected next week.
Police in the city of Lueneburg, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southeast of Hamburg, said they found a device beside the road that could have eroded land below the asphalt to the point where it could have collapsed under the weight of the trucks.
The stretch of road is the last leg a shipment of nuclear waste will take on its route from a reprocessing plant in La Hague, France, to a temporary storage facility in Gorleben, Germany.
Officials said a roadside water pipeline had been "professionally tapped" and fitted with a branch that could have redirected water into the soil beneath the roadway. No water had been diverted as of the system's discovery Wednesday, they said.
The discovery comes days after authorities identified nuclear protesters as successfully carrying out attacks that disabled portions of the Berlin-Hamburg and Berlin-Hanover rail routes for several hours early Monday morning.
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The annual waste transport, due to arrive in Gorleben late Monday, has become a favorite target of anti-nuclear demonstrators, thousands of whom are expected to protest along the route in the coming week.
German authorities have dedicated 10,000 officers to patrolling the route ahead of the transport's arrival.
Source: Associated Press
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