"(The shipment) may have arrived but the government is further than ever from its aim of getting people in Germany to accept nuclear power," Florian Kubitz from protest group Robin Wood said.

"We are going to draw new strength from these protests and feel we have been supported by a broad and decisive movement."

The 123 tonnes of waste, originally from a German nuclear power station, took 92 hours to make it to the Gorleben storage facility in the north of the country from a processing plant in France, by train and then by road.

The protesters -- who numbered 20,000 to 25,000, according to police -- were mostly young, but there were also older people in a country that since the Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine in 1986 has been uncomfortable about nuclear energy.

Protest stunts included sit-ins, abseiling from bridges into the train's path, removing stones supporting train tracks and even shepherding a herd of sheep and goats into the convoy's way.

The police operation included 20,000 officers and cost around 50 million euros (70 million dollars), according to the police union.

Monday and Tuesday were peaceful, but Sunday saw violent clashes, with masked activists fighting pitched battles with baton-wielding police enveloped in clouds of tear gas, and setting fire to a police vehicle.

Such shipments regularly attract protests, but this year the delay was the longest ever with demonstrators wishing to display their opposition to government plans to postpone the date when Germany goes nuclear-free.

Under a previous government, Germany decided in 2000 to switch off the last of the country's reactors by around 2020, but Chancellor Angela Merkel intends to keep nuclear power until the mid 2030s.

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Berlin in September against the move. A survey in September showed 59 percent of respondents opposed the extension, with just 37 percent in favour.

The lower house of parliament passed a bill on the extension last month. But the legislation could still face a tough fight in the upper house, where Merkel's alliance lost its majority in May, as well as court challenges.

"There was consensus on nuclear power, but this has been thrown of the window," political scientist Gero Neugebauer told AFP.

The material transported this week was first produced before 2005, and the government has said that the issue of radioactive waste has nothing to do with the question of extending the lifetimes of nuclear reactors.

But protesters disagree, saying they want to highlight what they say is one of the most alarming aspects of nuclear power, namely what to do with the radioactive waste produced.

Germany, like the rest of Europe, has no permanent storage site for the waste, which will remain dangerous for thousands of years. Keeping the reactors running for longer is therefore highly irresponsible, opponents say.

"This mass mobilisation has brought to the foreground the fundamental problem of the nuclear industry: that it is dirty, and dangerous," pressure group Greenpeace said.

"Nowhere in the world is there a proven solution to the deadly problem of isolating long lived radioactive waste from the environment."

"The protests in Gorleben show ... Merkel has in fact won little with her nuclear policy and lost a lot politically," the influential news magazine Spiegel said on its website.

earlier related report
German nuclear waste arrives after mass protests
Gorleben, Germany (AFP) Nov 9, 2010 - A convoy of 123 tonnes of highly radioactive nuclear waste arrived at its storage site in Germany Tuesday, following days of furious protests that massively delayed the shipment.

Accompanied by swarms of riot police and dozens of armoured police cars, the convoy of 11 white containers on lorries crawled slowly into its storage site at Gorleben, northern Germany, after a 20-kilometre (12-mile) road trip.

The shipment left France on Friday and endured a tortuous 67-hour journey by train as activists did everything they could to delay its progress including removing stones supporting train tracks and abseiling from bridges.

The train arrived in Dannenberg near Gorleben on Monday and authorities spent most of the day transferring the cargo onto lorries for its final journey.

Police then spent most of Monday night clearing some 3,000 activists trying to delay the arrival of the shipment further.

In a final act of defiance, activists had deployed a container lorry of their own to block the route, witnesses said.

Activists hailed the huge delay as a triumph and said the growing anti-nuclear movement in Germany would be further strengthened by the high-profile protests.

"We draw new strength from these protests and feel supported by a broad and decisive moment," said Florian Kubitz, from activist group Robin Wood.

A recent poll commissioned by Greenpeace showed 80 percent of people "had understanding" for the protests.

After a dramatic day of cat-and-mouse on Sunday, during which some masked activists fought pitched battles with baton-wielding police enveloped in clouds of tear gas, the protests on Tuesday were peaceful.

Shipments to Gorleben regularly attract protests, but this year they have been particularly strong, fired up by fury at Chancellor Angela Merkel's aim to postpone the deadline for Germany to abandon nuclear power.

Another survey in September showed 59 percent of respondents opposed the extension, with just 37 percent in favour.

Protest group Castor Schottern said two demonstrators were seriously injured in clashes with police on Sunday. Twenty-nine had head cuts, three people had concussion and there were 16 broken fingers, it said.

The group said its supporters had suffered around 1,000 injuries in all, mainly to the eyes as police deployed pepper spray and tear gas.

Around 20,000 police were mobilised for this shipment, the 12th, the head of the DPolG police union Rainer Wendt said. The police operation has cost around 50 million euros (70 million dollars), authorities said.

To add to the police's problems, at one point 2,000 sheep and 50 goats were apparently shepherded onto the road by demonstrators.

Gorleben is one of two main "intermediary" storage sites for highly radioactive nuclear materials, and government experts are continuing to assess whether it is suitable as a permanent site.

Merkel wants to extend the lifetime of Germany's 17 reactors by up to 14 years beyond a scheduled shutdown of around 2020 as a "bridge" until renewable sources like solar and wind power produce more electricity.

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated in Berlin in September against the extension, and protestors have warned of more to come.

"The protests in Gorleben show Angela Merkel has in fact won little with her nuclear policy and lost a lot politically." the influential news magazine Spiegel said on its website.

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