Nuclear power consensus and nuclear transports

Transports of spent fuel elements to the reprocessing plants of La Hague, France, and Sellafield, UK, as well as of casks with vitrified high-level waste returned to Germany were resumed in early 2001. These transports had been interrupted in 1998 after elevated levels of surface contamination had been found on the out-sides of the shipping casks. The transport issue was settled immediately in all countries affected except Germany, after the situation had been clarified. Numerous agencies involved as well as independent ones found that the increased contamination had to be removed, but had been neither dangerous nor, at that time, notifiable. The outcome of the German federal parliamentary elections in 1998 had produced a new government majority, thus changing the political environment for nuclear power. Opting out of the peaceful use of nuclear power in a properly arranged way and without having to pay compensation is the declared goal of the federal government. Accordingly, also transports of fuel elements for reprocessing are to be abandoned from 2005 on, and transports of spent fuel elements are to be minimized, for the time being, by building on-site-interim stores. The government's policy and opt-out legislation raise a number of questions which will have to be answered in a satisfactory way in the future. (orig.)