Anti-nuclear protestors removed from Mühleberg

Police have cleared one of two groups of protestors from the Mühleberg atomic power plant outside the capital, Bern. The 20 or so demonstrators said they did not resist.

The protest action began on Sunday morning when around 50 activists blocked direct road access to the plant. In the early afternoon a second group blocked the bridge to Mühleberg, making the power station only accessible by foot or bicycle from the village of Gümmenen.

Police have not said how long they will tolerate the second group of demonstrators.

Protestors at Mühleberg have said it is a scandal that the authorities continue to ignore reality and have no emergency evacuation plans in the event of a disaster at the controversial plant, which has been on the electricity grid since 1972.
  

The disaster at the Japanese nuclear power station at Fukushima earlier this year prompted soul-searching in Switzerland and the government announced in May that it planned to decommission Switzerland’s five nuclear power reactors by 2034, once they reach the end of their lifespan.

The House of Representatives has already agreed, but last week the Senate Energy Committee modified the proposal, agreeing instead simply to ban the construction of nuclear plants “of the current generation”.