Greenpeace activists held a rally on Tuesday...

The Russian Kapitan Kuroptev vessel was greeted by Greenpeace banners in French and Russian declaring that "Russia is not a nuclear dump."

The ship was already been a source of controversy in 2005, when after a group of environmental activists tried to stop it from entering the port with a similar cargo of spent nuclear fuel.

According to international standards, uranium hexafluoride is not considered nuclear waste, because it can be transformed into fuel for nuclear power stations.

"If it is a valuable fuel, why does France"s Areva part with it so easily?" said Vladimir Chuprov, the energy program director of Greenpeace Russia. "And what need does Rosatom have for it, when it already has stored up hundreds of thousands tons of such uranium tails, even though there is no special technology or financial resources for nuclear waste recycling in Russia?"

A week ago, French Greenpeace activists tore up the rail tracks near the Tricastin Nuclear Power Center

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