Question on German spent fuel shipping

[goldinem@songs.sce.com]

     I've been asked to see if I can find some facts about the German 
     spent fuel shipping problems recently reported in the media.  I 
     searched Radsafe archives but couldn't find anything useful and 
     I'm hoping someone out there can give me some facts.
     
     If my memory serves me, the problems were due to excessive 
     removable contamination when the shipping casks arrived at their 
     destination (a reprocessing plant in France?)  In the US, the 
     limit for putting a shipment on the road is 22 dpm/cm2 (~0.4 
     Bq/cm2) and must stay below 220 dpm/cm2 during transport 
     (increase due to weeping from the cask).  I heard that the limit 
     that was exceeded was the final survey limit of 4 Bq/cm2.  So 
     here are the questions:
     
     Did the shipments simply weep more than the expected "factor of 
     ten"?  Or did they leave the German plants already exceeding the 
     "starting" limit of 0.4 Bq/cm2?
     
     Was there any other problem with radiation levels?  The media 
     talked a lot about "leakage" but I assumed they misinterpreted 
     the removable contamination exceedance as "leakage."
     
     Does anyone know of any corrective actions taken?  Such as 
     improved or more aggressive decontamination efforts before 
     putting the cask on the road?  Were there any consequences such 
     as deposition from rain washing the casks while in transit?
     
     If anyone out there in Radsafe-land can provide some insight into 
     these events, I'd appreciate it.  Thanks,
     
     Eric Goldin
     Southern California Edison
     <goldinem@songs.sce.com>