Hundreds detained in Germany over nuclear waste protest

1,300 protesters have been detained after a sit-in on a railway line in northern Germany where at least 3,500 people gathered, attempting to block a shipment of nuclear waste passing through the area.

Hundreds of officers began removing protesters from the rail lines near the town of Dannenberg early Sunday, detaining those who refused to leave.The occupied tracks are to be used to transport a nuclear waste shipment that was reprocessed in France and is now on its way to a storage site near the town of Gorleben, also in northern Germany. The protesters argue that the waste containers and the temporary storage facility are unsafe.Nuclear energy has been unpopular in Germany since fallout from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine drifted over the country. The annual shipment from France has been a regular focal point for protesters.