German riot police confront anti-nuclear protesters in Metzingen, on November 25, 2011.
German riot police confront anti-nuclear protesters in Metzingen on Friday. Reuters

A French train carrying 150 tons of reprocessed nuclear waste entered German territory on Friday. According to reports, there have been clashes between anti-nuclear activists who attempted to block the train and riot police. On one occasion, 200 activists blocked the rails to try and stop the train's progress.

A total of 19,000 police officers have been deployed to secure the casks for storage and transport of radioactive materials (CASTOR) on the train, carrying 11 containers of waste.

The train was the last of 12 shipments of treated nuclear waste sent from France to a storage site in Gorleben, in Germany's Lower Saxony state. Reuters reported that, beginning, no German nuclear waste will be sent to France for reprocessing; instead, the waste will simply be stockpiled.

Last year, an estimated 50,000 opponents of nuclear power staged a series of demonstrations along the route of another transport, delaying the delivery of the radioactive waste by almost two days.

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