Dow Jones BERLIN. A long-awaited Franco-German accord on the transport of nuclear material removes one of two main obstacles to the implementation of a landmark German plan to end nuclear power production, energy industry officials said.

The main remaining obstacle is industry opposition to key parts of the draft nuclear exit legislation, the officials said. The new law is supposed to come into force this summer.

The nuclear exit plan, which still needs to be signed by the German energy industry and translated into law, foresees the gradual shutdown of the country's 19 nuclear plants and a ban on the construction of new plants. It also includes government guarantees on the transport of nuclear material.

"We are pleased with the transport accord," said Klaus Wertel, spokesman of utility Energie Baden-Württemberg AG. "The problem with France is now resolved."

As reported, the German and French governments approved a long-term plan for the transport of spent nuclear fuel from Germany to France for reprocessing and the shipment from France to Germany of radioactive nuclear waste that results from the reprocessing.

The next shipment from France to Germany – to be the first since 1998 – will be in late March or early April.

The Franco-German transport accord means the nuclear industry's existing contracts to reprocess spent fuel can be fulfilled, Wertel said.

Meanwhile, the German energy industry's attention looks set to focus on controversial draft nuclear-exit legislation by the Environment Ministry.

The industry claims the draft legislation would impose burdens not foreseen in the framework nuclear exit plan, which was agreed by the government and energy companies in June 2000.

"The nuclear exit law hasn't in any way reached the point where a consensus is possible and numerous hurdles remain to be overcome," said Gert Maichel, chairman of RWE Power AG, a unit of RWE AG, and president of Germany's main nuclear-energy lobby group.

The industry claims the draft legislation would force the premature shut down of nuclear plants by creating legal uncertainties. It also says the legislation has been criticized sharply by other government ministries involved in the matter.

The Environment Ministry, responsible for drafting the nuclear exit law, is led by a member of the antinuclear Green Party.

Past antinuclear protests in Germany mean the industry remains worried about the nuclear transport issue despite the Franco-German transport accord.

The inability of German nuclear plants to transport spent nuclear fuel abroad for reprocessing could force a shut down of the plants, whose spent fuel storage space is limited.

"The transport abroad for reprocessing must be carried out again as quickly as possible," said Maichel. "It's necessary to avoid blockage at several German nuclear plants."

Spent nuclear fuel from Germany's nuclear power plants is normally sent to La Hague in France for reprocessing by Compagnie Generale des Matieres Nucleaires, or Cogema, or to Sellafield in the U.K. for reprocessing by British Nuclear Fuels PLC.

Reprocessing by Cogema produces two products: radioactive nuclear waste, which is sent to Germany for storage at Gorleben in the northern state of Lower Saxony, and uranium, which is reused by German power companies for fuel.

No nuclear waste has been sent to Germany from France since May 1998, when a controversy over nuclear fuel container leaks caused a general halt to nuclear material transport in Germany.

The French government had said it wouldn't accept any more deliveries of spent fuel until Germany allowed the radioactive waste from La Hague to be sent to Gorleben.