The French government has suspended for 24 hours the operation of a train carrying radioactive waste as massive antinuclear demonstrations are expected against the transfer of the material from France to Germany.

The train was transporting radioactive waste processed by French nuclear plant Areva to a storage facility in Germany. However, the train has stopped short from its destination, suspended on a railway track 50 kilometers from the German border. Thousands of antinuclear activists are expected to occupy the track and block the operation of the train as soon as it enters Germany.

With no nuclear waste reprocessing facilities of its own, Germany send its radioactive waste to France to get reprocessed and then picks it up to be transported to Gorleben in northeastern Germany for storage. Violent antinuclear rallies are held every year along the transportation route.