The train carrying 12 containers of highly radioactive reprocessed waste from La Hague in Normandy will cross the border on Sunday and is expected to arrive at its final destination, Gorleben in northern Germany, a day later.

Anti-nuclear activists have threatened to lie on the tracks to block the convoy on its way to the storage facility.

Police said 10,000 officers would be deployed around Gorleban, particularly the last 19 kilometres (11.4 miles) of the journey which would be by road, after strident protests against similar nuclear waste convoys in the past.

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