Around a dozen members of an environmental group called Robin Wood unfurled a banner reading "Stop Castors", the name for nuclear waste containers, on a tower outside the main storage centre at Gorleben in northern Germany.

The protest went off smoothly, but police seized the climbing equipment and performed identity checks on the demonstrators when they came down after eight hours, the group's spokesman said.

Other protests were planned in the region Sunday, the environmental group said.

The waste late Sunday left the town of Valognes near the treatment plant at la Hague in northwest France in a trainload of 12 containers. It was due to reach Germany Monday evening and arrive at Gorleben on Tuesday.

Some 13,000 security personnel have been mobilised to protect the convoy.

On Saturday, several thousand demonstrators -- 5,000 according to organisers, 3,000 police figures suggest -- took part in a protest in the nearby town of Dannenberg against the transport.

The district of Lueneburg has banned a demonstration planned for Tuesday near Dannenberg, where the waste will be transferred from rail to trucks.

The Gorleben storage centre is about 20 kilometres (12 miles) away.

Germany, which is in the process of phasing out atomic energy, has no nuclear waste treatment facilities of its own and sends its spent fuel rods to France to be reprocessed.

The shipments regularly spark protests by environmentalists, who claim they are dangerous and that the waste will contaminate the water table at Gorleben.

WAR.WIRE