The French government has ordered an urgent inquiry into reports that railway wagons carrying spent nuclear fuel have been seriously contaminated by radioactivity.

The announcement came after French railways suspended transportation of nuclear waste because of safety concerns.

The French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin on Wednesday ordered an urgent report into security lapses in the handling of nuclear waste after his Environment Minister alleged a conspiracy of silence going back for years.

Environment Minister Dominique Voynet: lack of openness "shocking"

An official report discovered that a third of containers carrying waste to Valognes, in north-west France, showed levels of radioactivity above the recommended levels.

Some levels of contamination were hundreds of times higher than the recommended maximum.

Railway workers who may have been exposed to the contamination are to be examined by doctors.

Environment Minister Dominique Voynet on the need to avert more serious accidents (in French - 32")

The French Environment Minister and leader of the Greens Party, Dominique Voynet, described as "shocking" the lack of openness at the state-owned nuclear industry company, Gogema.

A Cogema official, Jean-Louis Ricaud, admitted that the company had found "hot spots" on about a third of last year's convoys to Valognes.

He said that this year, after a complaint to the French Electricity Authority (EDF), the contamination rate had fallen to about 15% of shipments.

The EDF official in charge of nuclear energy, Bernard Dupraz, said that all parties had apparently "underestimated the need for quick action," possibly because initially the radioactivity readings had been attributed to instrument problems.

Contaminated convoys appear to have been arriving at Valognes for some years, but not until the end of last year was the problem identified and since then more rigorous checks have been introduced at the points of departure.

The BBC Paris Correspondent Stephen Jessel reports (1'23")

The BBC Correspondent in Paris says that the authorities claim that convoys are now inspected and excessive radiation, in particular that from Cobalt-60, is eliminated before the fuel leaves the power stations where it has been burnt.

Even so, he says, containers continue to arrive showing levels of radioactivity above the permitted norms, though the authorities insist that the health of staff at the station is monitored.

Valognes serves the nuclear reprocessing plant 30km away at La Hague.

The plant is a rallying point for anti-nuclear protesters who have often tried to stop convoys of nuclear waste getting in or out.

According to one estimate, some 450 wagon-loads of nuclear material are transported each year from EDF power stations to the Cogema recycling plant in La Hague.

Transfers are also made by road from nuclear power stations across France to La Hague, where waste from Germany and Switzerland is treated as well.

The Greens Party has called for France to review its nuclear power programme and to look into renewable energy sources.
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