Greenpeace says information from authorities in France, where the waste was processed, showed the material contained plutonium and should be classified as “high-level” waste.

At least four groups are organising protests for Port Kembla on Saturday when the shipment arrives on the BBC Shanghai.

Greenpeace is critical of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), which classifies the material as “intermediate-level” waste and has said the plutonium had been removed during processing.

“We know it contains plutonium and is classified as high-level waste by the French authorities,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific’s head of programs Emma Gibson said.

“It’s clear on evidence the government is not being as straight as it can be about the nature of this shipment by insisting Australia only has intermediate-level waste.”

Greenpeace based its claim on the classification used by the French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency.

A spokesman from ANSTO dismissed the claim, saying it used definitions from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“Australia’s independent nuclear regulator, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, states this waste is intermediate level, based on IAEA waste classifications,” he said. “Measurements taken in France and already provided to Greenpeace upon their request, show that the waste returning is 0.28 kilowatts per cubic metre, which is well below the threshold.” 

By Wednesday night the BBC Shanghai was off the South Australian coast about to pass the Victorian border.

Once the waste is unloaded it will be trucked to ANSTO’s facility at Lucas Heights for secure storage.

Greenpeace told the Mercury its activists would be at the harbour and on small inflatable boats, filming and documenting the passage of the shipment.

Ms Gibson reiterated the group would not try and stop the shipment’s passage.