Berlin - The controversial shipment of highly radioactive nuclear waste from a French reprocessing plant to a German storage facility will not take place next year, the German Environment Ministry said in Berlin Tuesday. The ministry confirmed a report in the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that concerns regarding licensing a new "Castor" transport container were behind the delay.
The shipment set down for this year would, however, go ahead, the ministry said.
The rail transports have regularly drawn protests from environmental and anti-nuclear activists in the past.
The roughly annual transports run from the French reprocessing facility at La Hague on the Normandy coast to Gorleben in the German state of Lower Saxony.
The 2009 transport was to have comprised 11 Castor containers to add to the 80 already in Gorleben.
In 2004, a man was killed in France when he lay on the track and the nuclear train was unable to stop in time.
