A convoy of highly radioactive waste crawled into its final destination yesterday after unprecedented protests that activists said would further energise Germany’s growing anti-nuclear movement.

The 123 tonnes of waste, originally from a German nuclear power station, took 92 hours to make it to the Gorleben storage facility in the north of the country from a processing plant in France, by train and then by road. Such shipments regularly attract protests, but this year the delay was the longest ever with demonstrators wishing to display their opposition to government plans to postpone the date when Germany abandons nuclear power.

The protesters – who numbered 20,000 to 25,000, police said – were mostly young, but there were also older people in a country where many voters are uneasy about nuclear power. Local farmers put 40-50 tractors in the convoy’s path.

Protest stunts included sit-ins, abseiling from bridges into the train’s path, removing stones supporting train tracks and even shepherding a herd of sheep and goats into the convoy’s way.

Around 20,000 police, many of them working long hours, were deployed in an operation that cost around €50 million, according to the police union. They said around 1,300 people were taken into custody and eight were formally arrested.