The Wackersdorf nuclear reprocessing plant (german: Wiederaufbereitungsanlage Wackersdorf, abbreviated WAA Wackersdorf) is a reprocessing plant in

Wackersdorf Wackersdorf is a municipality in the district of Schwandorf in Bavaria, Germany. It is famous for playing host to rounds of the CIK-FIA Karting European Championship. See also * Wackersdorf nuclear reprocessing plant *Anti-nuclear movement in Germ ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. Because of protests the plant was never completed. Today it is an industrial site with no special features.

Anti-WAA protest

In the early 1980s plans to build a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the Bavarian town of

led to major protests. In 1986, peaceful protests as well as heavy confrontations between West German police armed with

stun grenade A stun grenade, also known as a flash grenade, flashbang, thunderflash, or sound bomb, is a Non-lethal weapon, less-lethal explosive device used to temporarily disorient an enemy's senses. Upon detonation, they produce a blinding flash of light a ...

rubber bullet Rubber bullets (also called rubber baton rounds) are a type of baton round. Despite the name, rubber bullets typically have either a metal core with a rubber coating, or are a homogeneous admixture with rubber being a minority component. Altho ...

water cannon A water cannon is a device that shoots a high-velocity stream of water. Typically, a water cannon can deliver a large volume of water, often over dozens of meters. They are used in firefighting, large vehicle washing, riot control, and mining ...

CS gas The compound 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile (also called ''o''-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile; chemical formula: C10H5ClN2), a cyanocarbon, is the defining component of tear gas commonly referred to as CS gas, which is used as a riot control agent ...

and CN-gas and demonstrators of which some were armed with slingshots, crowbars and

Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with flamma ...

s took place at multiple occasions at the site of a nuclear reprocessing plant in

. The plans for the plant were abandoned in 1988. It is still unclear whether protests or plant economics or the death of the

Minister-President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. It ...

of the state of Bavaria

Franz Josef Strauß Franz Josef Strauss ( ; 6 September 1915 – 3 October 1988) was a German politician. He was the long-time chairman of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) from 1961 until 1988, member of the federal cabinet in different positions between ...

1988 led to the decision. The

Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival The Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival was a series of political rock concerts which took place in Germany during the 1980s. Its purpose was to support protests against the planned nuclear reprocessing plant Wackersdorf (German: Wiederaufbereitungsanlage Wa ...

s were political rock concerts which took place in Germany in the 1980s. (The name is a pun on WAA and ''Wahnsinn'' = madness.) Their purpose was to support protests against a planned nuclear reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf. In 1986, the fifth festival marked the peak of the protest movement against the plant.

Protest Monuments

To this day there are still some monuments to the WAA resistance: * Francis shrine (chapel) with the "Cross of Wackersdorf"
At the shrine in the mid-1980s, WAA opponents met every Sunday at 14:00 for an ecumenical prayer and then moved into the area or to the hoarding. This is the same place where today the "Marterlgemeinde" meet four times a year to a prayer: at the Chernobyl- and Hiroshima-commemoration in memory of the shrine's saint

Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...

on 3 October and on Christmas Eve. * Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival plaque at Lanzenanger in

Burglengenfeld Burglengenfeld is a town in the district of Schwandorf, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Naab, 22 km north of Regensburg. Climate Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfal ...

* Anti-WAA

ex-voto An ex-voto is a votive offering to a saint or to a divinity; the term is usually restricted to Christian examples. It is given in fulfillment of a vow (hence the Latin term, short for ''ex voto suscepto'', "from the vow made") or in gratitude o ...

in the Church of Our Lady at Kreuzberg,

Schwandorf Schwandorf is a town on the river Naab in the Upper Palatinate, Bavaria, Germany, which is the seat of the Schwandorf district. Sights * Catholic parish church of St. Jakob * Kreuzberg Church: Catholic parish, monastic and pilgrimage church of ...

* WAA resistance memorial in front of the lake facilities,

Bregenz Bregenz (; gsw, label= Vorarlbergian, Breagaz ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switze ...

Festspielhaus * WAA resistance memorial in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

(Austria)

Documentary films

Some German

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

about WAA were filmed. * :de:WAAhnsinn – Der Wackersdorf-Film (documentary film 1986) * :de:Spaltprozesse (''Fission processes - Wackersdorf 001'': documentary film 1987) * :de:Restrisiko (Dokumentarfilm) (''The Remaining Risk or the Arrogance of Power'': documentary film 1989) * :de:Das achte Gebot (1991) (''The Eighth Commandment'': documentary film against nuclear energy 1991) * :de:Halbwertszeiten (''Half-lifes'': documentary film 2006) * :de:Albtraum Atommüll (''The Nightmare of Nuclear Waste'':

ARTE Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plus ...

-documentary film 2009 about the fate of nuclear waste and about the dangers of nuclear energy) * WAA Wackersdorf: Strahlende Zukunft für die Oberpfalz (''WAA Wackersdorf: A Radiant Future for the Upper Palatinate'': Monitor-documentary 1986 by Gabriele Krone-Schmalz, Ekkehard Sieker, Helge Cramer) * 18 Tage freies Wackerland (''The 18 Days of the Free Wacker Land'': Medienwerkstatt Franken, Bibliothek des Widerstands Band 19, BellaStoria Film) * Schreckgespenst WAA – Widerstand in Wackersdorf (''The WAA Heartburn: Resistance in Wackersdorf'': Medienwerkstatt Franken, Bibliothek des Widerstands Band 19, BellaStoria Film) * WAA-Schlachten (''WAA Battles'': Medienwerkstatt Franken, Bibliothek des Widerstands Band 19, BellaStoria Film) * Wackersdorf - ein Mythos? Was ist aus den WAA-Kämpfern von einst geworden? (''Wackersdorf - a myth? What happened to the former WAA fighters?'' Medienwerkstatt Franken) * Lieber heute aktiv als morgen radioaktiv (''Better active today than radioactive tomorrow'': contribution by Lars Friedrich in the TV magazine ttt – titel, thesen, temperamente) * Zaunkämpfe (''Fighting at the Fence'': Medienwerkstatt Franken 1988, BellaStoria Film) Zaunkämpfe
- (YouTube ca. 4 Min.) * Kirche unterstützt Mahnwache am Wackersdorfdenkmal (''The Church supports the picket at the Wackersdorf memorial'',

Salzburger Nachrichten The ''Salzburger Nachrichten'' is a German language daily newspaper published in Salzburg, Austria. It has been in circulation since 1945. History and profile ''Salzburger Nachrichten'' was established in 1945 by the American forces occupying Au ...

) Kirche unterstützt Mahnwache am Wackersdorfdenkmal
- (

on YouTube ca. 5 Min.) * Der Fahrradspeichenfabrikkomplex (''The Complex of the Bicycle Spoke Factory'': Hörbuch-Feature 2010 von Angela Kreuz und Dieter Lohr) Many other films and documentaries are available at "WAA Wackersdorf" on

video portal A video portal is a website offering user created or professionally created video content. Furthermore, it is video content management system, providing further access to a variety of visual sources with an interaction for users to upload, make, c ...

s such as

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

References

{{coord, 49, 19, 14, N, 12, 13, 57, E, region:DE-BY_type:landmark, display=title Anti–nuclear power movement Anti-nuclear movement in Germany Nuclear reprocessing Nuclear technology in Germany Schwandorf (district)