Police and protesters clash near Philippsburg

The French protesters said in a statement that they opposed "once again that France should take on the role as the world's nuclear waste bin", French news agency AFP reported.

Around 100 of the German arrests came amid clashes with police near the Philippsburg nuclear power station. Other activists were detained in Bavaria.

Last month, a train bringing nuclear waste back from the same plant in France was delayed by up to 24 hours as protesters chained themselves to the rails.

The final cost of policing the last operation was put at $50m

The latest protest actions come two weeks after thousands of protesters held up six containers of nuclear waste which were being returned from France following reprocessing.

Protesters had hoped to repeat their earlier success, when it took 30,000 police officers across Germany to clear a path for the shipment.

Policing them cost more than $50m, and embarrassed the governing Red-Green coalition which is committed to ending nuclear power within 30 years.

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Some environmentalists say this is not fast enough, and have vowed to continue their protests until reprocessing abroad is halted.

The nuclear fuel rods began their journey in three German states - Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Hessen.

Their final destination is the Cogema reprocessing plant at La Hague.