Under pressure
the Bonn government has banned transport of radioactive waste within and outside Germany from its nuclear power stations. The decision has been taken following the discovery of radiation on the outer surface of a "castor' container for used fuel elements. French researchers had recently found a German container with gamma radiation five times the official limit of four becquerels per sq cm.
After this report, the German environment ministry insisted that the radiation was completely harmless. Later it decided to suspend transport of nuclear waste until the cause of the leak is properly explained to the public, ministry officials said.
At present, the government has no explanation for the radioactive contamination. But ministry officials suggested that it might have arisen through the evaporation during transit of the contaminated water inside the containers, which subsequently seeped through screw holes or hairline cracks. The present ban underlines the sensitivity of politicians towards the issue.
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