A train carrying highly radioactive nuclear waste has reached its destination in southern Germany after a 17-hour journey across the country.
A speaker for the GNS nuclear services company said the train, carrying seven containers filled with nuclear waste, arrived without disruption on Thursday in Wörth an der Isar, in the southern state of Bavaria.
The waste is to be transported to a temporary storage facility 3 kilometres away at the former Isar nuclear power plant.
The nuclear material was left over from the reprocessing of fuel elements from decommissioned German nuclear plants at the Sellafield site in the United Kingdom.
It was shipped back to Germany from the northern English port of Barrow-in-Furness, arriving in Germany early on Tuesday, where it was transferred to a train on Wednesday.
While Germany phased out nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster in 2011, it still faces the question of how and where to store radioactive waste.
The issue has long proved controversial across the country, with several protests being held along the route of the train’s journey.
Several environmental organizations have complained that the temporary facilities are not safe and that efforts to find a permanent storage site are not being made quickly enough.
The mayor of Niederaichbach, near the Isar power plant, said he was “not happy about the situation.”
Seven more containers of nuclear waste are due to be sent from Sellafield and stored in Germany.
A train carrying Castor containers passes the Isar nuclear power plant. The nuclear waste consists of spent fuel elements from German nuclear power plants that have been reprocessed in England. According to the Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service (GNS), the highly radioactive waste is set to be temporarily stored in Niederaichbach near Landshut. Sven Hoppe/dpa
A train carrying Castor containers passes the Isar nuclear power plant. The nuclear waste consists of spent fuel elements from German nuclear power plants that have been reprocessed in England. According to the Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service (GNS), the highly radioactive waste is set to be temporarily stored in Niederaichbach near Landshut. Sven Hoppe/dpa