Port Kembla will be the landing point for a shipment of treated nuclear wasted being shipped to Australia from France.

The Mercury can reveal the shipment of about 25 tonnes of intermediate-level waste, originally from the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor, is on board a cargo ship bound for Port Kembla, where it will unloaded onto trucks for the final leg of its journey.

The NSW Police Marine Area Command is planning a major operation around the shipment, an operation which includes protecting the shipment from any protests, including any moves that may try and stop its movement, or other risks.

Police declined to comment on the operation, citing security reasons, but the Mercury understands planning includes how to deal with any emergency safety hazard that could arise on water or land.

The waste is travelling on board the cargo vessel BCC Shanghai, which is presently off the coast of Spain headed for the Suez Canal.

From there it is listed as being due in Port Kembla on November 30.

The police operation is set to take place on December 5 and 6, as the waste, encased in a huge casket weighing a total of about 100 tonnes, is unloaded in a process expected to last several hours, before being shipped to Lucas Heights.

It is not clear whether the November 30 target is a nominal date that is likely to change, or whether the vessel and its cargo could be moored off the Illawarra coast for several days.

From Port Kembla the cargo will travel by road, on a truck within a motorcade, to Lucas Heights in the Sutherland Shire.

ANSTO must store the waste at its facility at Lucas Heights, where it was originally produced, because Australia lacks a permanent national nuclear waste dump, or an international partner willing to accept nuclear waste for storage.

In 2009, when this same waste was on its way to France, more than 400 police staged a massive operation to secure the shipment which travelled under heavy escort along closed roads through Wollongong to Port Kembla.