Germany’s anti nuclear movement got its start in the early 1970s, when protestors came out in force against plans for a nuclear power plant at Wyhl, close to the French border. Police were accused of using unnecessary force against the peaceful demonstrations. But the activists ultimately won, and plans for the Wyhl power station were scrapped in 1975.

Following the success of civil disobedience in Wyhl, similar protests were held in Brokdorf and Kalkar in the late 70s. Though they failed to prevent reactors being built, they proved that the anti-nuclear movement was a growing force.

Gorleben has seen fierce protest against the nuclear industry ever since plans to store nuclear waste in a disused salt mine there were first announced in 1977. The site is a sparsely populated area close to the then-border with East Germany. Yet locals quickly showed they weren't going to accept radioactive material close to their homes without a fight.

From the beginning, the German anti-nuclear movement brought together church organizations, farmers and concerned local residents - along with student activists, academics, and peace protestors who saw a link between nuclear power and the atom bomb. Being at the frontline of the Cold War meant the threat of nuclear war loomed large in many German minds.

In the late 70s, anti-nuclear activists joined with other environment and social justice campaigners to form the Green Party. Today, this is a major force in German politics and probably the most powerful Green Party in the world. They won their first seats in the German federal parliament in 1983.

In 1986, a reactor meltdown hundreds of miles away in Ukraine hardened public opinion against nuclear power in Germany. The Chernobyl disaster released radioactive fallout across Europe. In Germany, people were warned not to drink milk, eat fresh meat or let children play on playgrounds, where the sand might have been contaminated.

In 1998, the Green Party came into German federal government, as the junior partner in a coalition with the Social Democrats. In 2002, the "red-green" government passed a law banning new nuclear power plants and limiting the lives of existing plants so that the last would be switched off in 2022.

Even with an end to nuclear power finally in sight, the anti-nuclear movement still had plenty to protest about. Many activists, including in the Green Party (with leaders Jürgen Tritten and Claudia Roth pictured above in Berlin in 2009) wanted nuclear power phased out far faster. Meanwhile, the German movement continued to join international calls for a global end to nuclear power.

Then there was still the question of what to do with nuclear waste. By 1995, containers of radioactive material were coming back from reprocessing abroad for storage at Gorleben. Over the years, transport of these "castors" has regularly been met with mass protests, including clashes with police.

Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Party had always opposed the law limiting the life of Germany's nuclear power plants - so after the party came to power in 2009, it effectively scrapped it by prolonging the lives of power plants - a major setback for the anti-nuclear movement.

In 201,1 the meltdown of a Japanese nuclear reactor saw Merkel's government make a rapid about-face. Within days of the Fukushima disaster, it passed a law to shut down the last of Germany's nuclear power plants by 2022. The phase-out was back on, and eight reactors were shut down that same year.

Since the grassroots action of the 70s, Germany's anti-nuclear movement has seen the country commit to ditching nuclear altogether. It's also helped push forward a shift to renewables, making Germany an international example in the fight against climate change. But the protests go on. This week, activists stopped the first boat carrying nuclear waste.

Protesters used heavy bicycle locks to chain themselves to a bridge above a sluice in Gündelsheim near Heilbronn. Police found their bolt cutters were not large enough to cut the locks, but they said the locked protesters would not hinder the transport. One officer quipped, "As far as I am concerned they can stay here until tomorrow."

German energy company EnBW is once again transporting nuclear waste along the Neckar River on a specially outfitted barge. The company intends to store a total of 342 spent fuel rods from its shuttered Obrigheim nuclear power plant at an interim storage facility at its Neckarwestheim plant. It took the ship 12 hours to make the 50-kilometer (31-mile) trip.

The specially outfitted transport barge waited in the sluice below the bridge where protesters chained themselves before continuing its journey. This is the third of five planned waste deliveries. Although controversial, EnBW said that it is preferable to move its nuclear waste to an existing facility rather than to build a new one at a phased-out facility.

Activists from the environmental organization Robin Wood donned wetsuits and took to the water in an attempt to block the transport barge's path. Police labeled the move "unspectacular and peaceful."

Police quickly landed the protesters, who officials said will face a fine. Herbert Würth from Neckar Castorfrei, an anti-nuclear alliance, said, "Ultimately, we don't want to endanger the transport."

The ship was heavily guarded and accompanied by authorities in the air, land and in the water. Critics claimed such transports are dangerous but authorities countered that they are necessary if Germany is to safely store its nuclear waste. Observers said protests have waned over the years that followed Chancellor Angela Merkel's 2011 decision to phase out nuclear energy in Germany by 2022.

In the past, hundreds of thousands of Germans took to the streets to protest nuclear energy, and clashes with police were at times violent. Protests have gotten smaller and less contentious since 2011, still, the majority of Germans remain steadfastly opposed to nuclear energy. Here, a solitary protester holds an iconic "nuclear energy? No thanks" flag, made popular in the 1970s and 80s.