The shipment of treated nuclear waste is the first to return from France after reprocessing by multinational nuclear giant Aveda.
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Its journey has been years in the making but the waste was always coming back.
It left Australia as spent nuclear fuel in four shipments that finished in 2009.
The Australian Science and Technology Organisation says French law demanded the waste from reprocessing had to leave the country by the end of 2015.
“Nuclear fuel reprocessing entails removal of materials such as uranium and plutonium, stabilisation of the remaining material in glass, and placing that material in a transport/storage container,” ANSTO said in a statement.
Anti-nuclear campaigners Greenpeace have claimed the ship is not safe for transporting nuclear waste, and called for Australian Border Force to intercept it and turn it around.
But ANSTO said the ship had been checked and given the tick of approval by Areva and the French maritime and nuclear safety authorities.
