Nuclear waste sent from Australia for reprocessing in France cannot be unloaded because it does not have proper authorisation, a French court recently ruled, backing a complaint by Greenpeace, an international pressure group. Cogema, the world's leading nuclear fuel reprocessor, was due to handle the Australian waste. In its appeal, Greenpeace stated that Cogema had failed to apply for authorisation to import the cargo and the company was not technically equipped to treat the waste.