Several thousand demonstrators, mainly French, German and Swiss, gathered Saturday in front of Colmar station to demand the closure of the Fessenheim nuclear power plant, the oldest in the French nuclear power plant, Reuters noted.
"No therapeutic relentlessness for the oldest power station in France", one could read on a banner.
The police estimated the number of demonstrators at 3.300 around 14:30 p.m. while the anti-nuclear, delayed by traffic jams around the city in almost siege, continued to arrive.
Most of the motorway accesses to the Haut-Rhin prefecture are closed and a perimeter of around two kilometers around the station is closed to traffic.
Police equipped with riot barriers guard the strategic axes.
"It's an ubiquitous situation," said Senator Vert from Haut-Rhin, Jacques Muller, who is participating in the event organized by the Sortir du nuclear association network.
"It shows the reality: nuclear power is taboo. Democracy finds itself flouted," he added.
The prefecture defended itself from any excess in the management of the police, estimating that “the presence of violent groups is always possible.” It stresses the need to prevent demonstrators from approaching the city center.
BLOCKED CARS?
The UMP mayor of Colmar, Gilbert Meyer, had excluded this possibility from the start and proposed to the demonstrators to meet in a stadium, which they refused.
The prefecture also denied having prevented German buses from crossing the border as claimed by protesters.
Stéphane Lhomme, spokesperson for the Sortir du nuclear network has maintained these accusations before Reuters.
“We are told that buses are stopped at the border. There are very long checks where everyone is checked. They will be released but too late for the demonstration, "he said.
The demonstration is held a few days before the start of the third ten-year visit to the Fessenheim plant, a health check that will tell whether its two 900-megawatt reactors are capable of operating for ten more years.
Commissioned on the Rhine in 1977, it has been singled out for three years by the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN), the body responsible for monitoring civil nuclear activities, which reports on "deviations" from more operating rules than in other hexagonal power plants.
ASN nevertheless judged in its 2008 report that the site was "in progress".
Its president, André-Claude Lacoste, estimated in November last "very improbable" that ASN recommends closing the installation when it gives its opinion in early 2011.
Patrick Genthon with Gilbert Reilhac, edited by Sophie Louet
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