(Image Source: DAPD)

BY MADISON MACK

“Forget first appearances, this is no ordinary train.  Hence the police presence as anti-nuclear protesters gather to denounce what some have nicknamed ‘Chernobyl on wheels’. Carrying nuclear waste from France to Germany, the train has already been  temporarily stopped by activists on the French side of the border..."

It’s a return to the reactor -- in the Rhineland.  Germany is once again, going nuclear with its energy future.   We’re analyzing the power plant protests from euronews, France 24, Al Jazeera, Presseurop, Frankfurter Rundschau and Die Welt.

Public resistance to Germany’s nuclear plans began after Chancellor Angela Merkel announced her intention to extend the life of Germany’s 17 nuclear power plants an average of 12 years beyond their original decommission date of 2020. One activist tells France 24, Germany has no place to store nuclear waste safely.

“There is no solution where to store the nuclear waste that is being produced every day, every hour we have nuclear power plants.”

“They should shut down the nuclear power plants so that we stop having more and more nuclear waste for which we don’t have a place.”

Al Jazeera talks with one protester who says-- even the transport containers aren’t safe to contain radiation from the waste.

“Despite the fact that these are the safest containers in the world, there is still radiation which escapes from them. In fact, it’s a way to show nuclear transports of whatever nuclear material whether its waste or something else, they are never 100 percent sure.”

Protesters successfully delayed the nuclear convoy several times during its trek through Germany in what were mostly peaceful protests.  According to German police, more than 20,000 demonstrators protested at the storage site. A writer for Presseurop says, unlike anti-nuclear protests of the past, this one is more powerful because it’s reached the German mainstream.

“…anti-nuke rallies are no longer just about combating a risky technology, but about championing an ecologically sound system of generating electricity. In other words, they have become patriotic and ultimately extremely middle-class events. This makes the movement dangerous.”

But a writer for Germany’s Frankfurter Rundschau says these protests, like those in the past, won’t accomplish much.

"This weekend, Wendland felt like a time machine. It witnessed the return to an era which many believed was over. Sit-in protests and demonstrations against tear gas and water cannons -- rather than real politics."

Finally, a writer for the German conservative paper Die Welt says the waste is a necessary byproduct of creating enough power to meet German demand.

“…switching to renewable by 2020 will not cover our energy requirements, and therefore the coal power stations will have to produce more of our power. More and more power stations have been built in Germany since the decision to phase out nuclear. These power stations have a disastrous impact on the climate."

So what do you think?  Fire up the fuel rods?  Or is nuclear energy, too 20th century?