Overview

• Germany’s nuclear safety authority BASE approved in late August two road shipments using CASTOR containers to move a total of ten spent fuel elements from the FRM II reactor to the Ahaus interim facility.
• Environmental groups including Umweltinstitut München, Ausgestrahlt, Bund Naturschutz and Greenpeace demonstrated outside the Garching site, urging on‑site treatment or interim storage instead of a long‑distance transfer.
• The city of Ahaus and Bund Naturschutz have filed formal objections to the approval, keeping legal challenges to the planned shipments active.
• Critics note the FRM II elements contain highly enriched uranium—reported at up to about 93% U‑235—and warn of proliferation and transport risks.
• TU München, the reactor’s operator, says denaturing the material would require complex physico‑chemical processes and adds that an interim store in Garching is not politically planned.