Thousands of German police and anti-nuclear activists fought running battles today as a train with atomic waste bound for a north German waste dump reached its destination.
Demonstrators threw stones and fireworks at police who responded by firing water cannon as the train pulled into the northern town of Dannenberg.
The train, pulling six casks of radioactive waste, made slow progress with police running alongside to check for sabotage on the line after environmental activists caused long delays overnight by chaining themselves to the track.
Officials will now check the containers' radiation levels and load them onto trucks for the final 16-mile journey to the Gorleben dump on the Elbe River.
The loading process was expected to take up to 12 hours but it was not clear when officials would move the containers.