A train carrying reprocessed nuclear waste crossed into Germany on Saturday, delayed nearly three hours by protests in France where activists laid straw dummies across railroad tracks, reported The Assocaited Press. The train, which left late Friday from the Normandy town of Valognes under an escort of dozens of riot police, was halted at least three times _ delaying its planned afternoon arrival in Germany until early evening. About two dozen demonstrators met the train on the German side of the border in the town of Woerth, where the locomotive was changed. They held signs and balloons to protest the shipment, amid a heavy police presence. About 5,000 people also marched in the northern city of Gorleben, near the disputed nuclear waste storage site where the shipment was to arrive on Sunday. Spent fuel from Germany's nuclear power plants is sent to France and Britain for reprocessing under contracts that oblige Germany to take back the waste. Gorleben has been a traditional focus of anti-nuclear protests, and the annual shipments have in the past led to clashes between thousands of demonstrators and police. Activists argue that neither the waste containers nor the Gorleben site _ currently a temporary storage facility _ are safe. The waste is stored in a warehouse near a disused salt mine that an earlier government decided was suitable as a permanent underground storage site. The protest movement has faded somewhat since the German government embarked in 2003 on plans to phase out nuclear power, but activists complain that the two-decade timetable for closing Germany's nuclear plants is too slow. In France, dozens of anti-nuclear activists hiding in the woods along the tracks in Normandy laid out dummies made of straw, causing the train to lose about two hours on its schedule, said David Lamy of the anti-nuclear group Sortir du Nucleaire. He said police detained five activists. National police spokesman Patrick Hamon said at least two other protests along the route set the train back further. A police officer in Germany was injured Friday in a clash with demonstrators at a roadblock near Gorleben, Germany.
