Thousands of Germans to join 52-km chain of light against nuclear power

Thousands of Germans are expected to demonstrate against nuclear power generation Thursday evening (26 Feb)with a chain of light 52 kilometres long.

The route links Braunschweig, Wolfenbüttel and Salzgitter in the north, an area that contains two frighteningly failing underground nuclear waste dumps, Asse II and Schacht Konrad.

People are expected to travel from all over Germany to the demo, called by trade unions, advocacy groups and local governments, to protest against irresponsible handling of nuclear waste.

The chain of light is to show the connections between the various waste dumps in Germany.

The anti-nuclear movement is particularly incensed about a recently passed law that will have taxpayers footing the bill for nuclear dumps although the waste in them was produced by power companies, which will not be paying.

If waste disposal costs were completely factored into the power price, opponents say, the legend of cheap nuclear electricity would be blown away.
 
One of the participating groups, ROBIN WOOD, says the next German election will also be a vote on whether the decided exit from nuclear power is thrown out and trouble-prone nukes can stay on the grid, producing waste for which there is no final disposal method.

From 6 p.m. local time people will stand along the 52 kilometres and on the dot of 7 p.m. will light burning torches, lanterns, searchlights and fires in drums. Organisers have already sold 10,000 firebrands.

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An old potash mine used as a dump called Asse II is flooding at a rate of 12 cubic metres a day and throwing up all sorts of questions about safe keeping of nuclear leftovers for a million years. See my report at http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/story/nuclear-worries-increase-german-waste-dump-mine-floods. 

And for my reports on two other dumps see http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/search/node/Morsleben+Schacht+Konrad.