A “Power Supply Disruption” Delays the Second Castor Transport Through NRW; Anti-Nuclear Activists Demand Clarification
During the Castor transports of highly radioactive nuclear waste plowing through North Rhine-Westphalia, new technical problems keep emerging. On Tuesday evening, the second specialized semi-trailer could leave the Forschungszentrum Jülich only after about a 90-minute delay, according to anti-nuclear activists. The reason was a “disruption in the external power supply of the vehicle while stationary,” the Jülich Disposal Company for Nuclear Facilities (JEN) stated in writing. The radioactive waste is being transported from Jülich to the interim storage facility in Ahaus.
Whether the monitoring of the Castor was endangered is unclear. In the statement it says, “the transport unit itself” was “at no time affected or damaged.” In a telephone call, a JEN spokesperson told that the interrupted power supply at least indirectly serves that transport unit—the 30-meter-long trailer on which the 2.70-meter-long nuclear waste container sits.
The unit contains “diverse technical systems,” which are subject to secrecy, the spokesperson said—and apparently they require electricity. The tightness of the container, however, was “guaranteed at all times”: “The Castor is completely intact.”
Nuclear-critical initiatives are now demanding clarification—after all, there had already been prior mishaps: in 2023 an unloaded test transport “lost contact” with the preceding police convoy and turned at the Kaiserberg interchange incorrectly. In addition, the federal agency for interim storage admitted that it took a week to connect the first Jülich Castor at the destination in Ahaus to the container monitoring, criticized by Marita Boslar of the Stop Westcastor coalition and Heiner Möllers of the No Nuclear Waste in Ahaus initiative.
Nevertheless, 150 more Castors are to be brought to the interim storage facility there. The Black-Green NRW state government must now clarify what consequences a failure of the power supply during transport could have, demand the anti-nuclear opponents. It remains unclear whether safety concerns were ignored on Tuesday. For every transport, around 2,000 police officers are deployed due to the potential terrorism risk.
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