Nuclear waste ban ordered

Germany stopped all shipments of nuclear waste yesterday after it emerged that the nuclear power industry was aware since the 1980s that some shipments were excessively radioactive.

4The government banned shipments abroad on Wednesday after the surface of German nuclear waste containers arriving at reprocessing plants at La Hague in France and Sellafield in Britain were found to be contaminated.

"There will be no further shipments inland or to reprocessing plants abroad until appropriate technical measures ensure that this contamination will not happen again," the environment ministry said in a statement yesterday.

Protests against nuclear waste shipments have become an annual ritual in Germany, with thousands of demonstrators battling with a massive police presence each year.

The government insisted yesterday radiation levels were too low to pose a health risk to the public or to the police officers who guard each shipment. But the leader of the union representing police officers, Mr Hermann Lutz, warned his members may refuse to guard nuclear waste in the future.

He described the failure of the nuclear power companies to tell the public of the excessive levels of radiation as "shameless behaviour more fitting to a dictatorship than a democracy".

The nuclear industry admitted on Wednesday that it had known about the contamination of nuclear waste containers since 1988.

The waste is the product of recycled nuclear rods and must be stored and constantly cooled for more than 20 years. Although it is encased in glass the material is hot - about 450 degrees centigrade at the centre of the containers - and remains radioactive.

The problem is caused by the fact that the containers are filled and sealed under water. Water containing radioactive particles can remain in small cracks and joints on the outer surface of the containers.

The environment ministry claimed yesterday that it first heard about the contamination on April 24th this year when a shipment to La Hague was found to contain excessive radiation. But the opposition Greens insisted that, if the government was not aware of the problem, it was neglecting its duty to protect the public.

Opposition politicians accused the government of playing down the dangers of nuclear waste transports for years, to the point where it had lost credibility. Both the opposition Social Democrats and Greens oppose nuclear waste shipments as dangerous, expensive and unnecessary. They believe that waste should be disposed of close to the power stations where it is produced.

Greenpeace yesterday demanded that the nuclear power companies responsible for the contamination should be forbidden to operate in future. The group is considering legal action against what it described as "the obviously criminal machinations of the German nuclear industry".