German anti-nuclear activists briefly held up a train carrying nuclear waste from a French reprocessing facility on its way to a storage depot in northern Germany yesterday, police said.

The train with 12 wagons of nuclear waste sealed in glass containers was delayed for 90 minutes near the southwestern town of Bietigheim-Bissingen when around a dozen anti-nuclear protesters demonstrated on the tracks. Police detained them.

The train was heading for the northern Gorleben interim storage depot, where it is due to arrive today. Thousands of activists are waiting near the depot to stage more protests to disrupt the transportation of the waste. The protests, which began on Friday, have been mostly peaceful.

Around 15,000 police are accompanying the nuclear waste transfer in Germany.

Activists protesting against such shipments have clashed with police in previous years. In 2002, protesters disrupted the passage of a train by burning tyres on the tracks and by chaining themselves to the rails.

Yesterday in Gusborn near Gorleben, several hundred demonstrators joined 150 farmers in a blockade with their tractors on a street leading to the Gorleben depot, a temporary facility that protesters fear will become a permanent waste depot.

They also worry it will contaminate the local water supply.