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Scuffles broke out between police and protesters after fireworks and paint were thrown at officers. Protesters had tried to block a crossroads at Metzingen, near the shipment’s destination. French authorities have stopped the train in Remilly, short of the border.

Some reports quoted authorities as saying it would wait for 24 hours to avoid more mass protests, ….. The train had left Areva’s nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in Normandy on Wednesday after a scuffle between police in riot gear and several hundred protesters who tried to occupy the train tracks near the town of Valognes…..

It is the first waste shipment to Germany since Berlin decided to shut all its nuclear plants by 2022, following Japan’s nuclear disaster caused by the earthquake and tsunami in March.

The train was the last of 12 shipments of treated German nuclear waste sent in recent years from France. The contract between Areva and German nuclear power producers has expired and is not expected to be renewed, as Germany has voted against the transportation of radioactive nuclear fuel.

The train is carrying 11 tubular containers of highly radioactive nuclear waste, that are due to be stored in Gorleben in northeast Germany. But officials have not resolved where waste should be stored permanently and opponents argue that the Gorleben site is unsafe.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15883782