The legal tug-of-war over dozens of Castor transports of highly radioactive nuclear waste through the middle of North Rhine-Westphalia continues: The Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation (BUND) has lodged a complaint against a decision by the Berlin Administrative Court, which rejected an urgent application by the environmental association against nuclear waste tourism, which has been criticized for years as “nonsensical and dangerous”. declared inadmissible.
Now the Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court is supposed to ensure that the transport of 288,161 fuel elements from the high-temperature reactor of the former nuclear research center in Jülich near Aachen to the Ahaus interim storage facility, around 170 kilometers away, is not allowed to start during the ongoing urgent procedure.
The administrative court as the first instance had only rejected BUND’s application for formal reasons: the environmental association was opposed to the Berlin-based Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE), which reports to SPD Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider. simply “not authorized to apply”said the Berlin judges – in this specific case, the BUND had no right to take collective action.
In terms of content, the 10th Chamber of the Administrative Court, however, decided that due to BUND’s security concerns, the success of a main legal procedure “can be assessed as open at this point in time”.
The court had redacted documents in front of it
Ultimately, the almost 300,000 highly radioactive fuel elements in 152 castors are apparently supposed to roll for months on the dilapidated highways of the most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 18 million people – for example through the state capital Düsseldorf and the densely populated western Ruhr area around Duisburg – with dozens of truck journeys.
In general, the transport permit is from BASE could only be legally assessed to a limited extentsaid the administrative court: Central parts of the approval documents were blacked out and therefore unreadable even for the Berlin judges.
This is why there is a hail of criticism from BUND: “If courts recognize that safety issues cannot be assessed comprehensively, but at the same time prevent them from being checked at all, effective legal protection comes to nothing,” says Kerstin Ciesla, deputy state chairwoman of the environmental association in North Rhine-Westphalia. “The decision here was not about security, but about who was allowed to ask questions.”
The BUND argues that the judgment therefore contradicts European law, which guarantees recognized environmental associations judicial review of violations of environmental legal regulations. “We won’t allow our rights to be taken away from us – that’s why we’re filing a complaint,” explains Vice State Chairwoman Ciesla. Because if even “high-risk nuclear transports are removed from judicial control,” “environmental legal protection as a whole would be at stake.”
Demos have been announced for Sunday
Anti-nuclear initiatives such as the Münsterland Action Alliance Against Nuclear Plants, the Stop Westcastor Jülich Action Alliance and the Federal Association of Citizens’ Environmental Protection Initiatives (BBU) welcomed the BUND complaint.
Anti-nuclear activists are therefore calling for a rally in front of the town hall in Ahaus next Sunday, which is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. And on Saturday, January 24th, there will be a demonstration at the Bottrop-Süd motorway service station from 11 a.m.
The residents along the highways have not yet been informed by the federal or state government or the police about the “significant accident and safety risks of trucking nuclear waste,” says nuclear power opponent Jens Dütting from the Ahauser Initiative in justification. Because of a major motorway construction site between Bottrop and Oberhausen, the A2 is an “obvious safety bottleneck”.
The black-green state government must also “finally act,” demands Matthias Eickhoff from the Münsterland Action Alliance against Nuclear Facilities. The BUND complaint offers a “political window of opportunity” for the Green NRW State Economics Minister Mona Neubaur, who is also responsible for nuclear supervisionbut also for North Rhine-Westphalia’s CDU Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst himselfto prevent the Castor transports through negotiations with the federal government.
Green regional association is becoming more critical
Even the NRW state association of the Greens is now carefully distancing itself from its own state government. The Greens are also calling for people to take part in the demonstration on Sunday in front of the town hall in Ahaus – and thus also to protest against the policies of their own Deputy Prime Minister Neubaur.
“Nuclear waste transport is dangerous and a security risk for our country,” said the co-country leader of the Green Party, Tim Achtermeyer. This was preceded by strong criticism from the Left: “Neubaur’s resignation is overdue by the time the first Castor rolls out,” their nuclear policy spokesman in North Rhine-Westphalia, Hubertus Zdebel, told the taz.