Anti-nuclear protestors gathered in Garching, near the southern city of Munich, as the 20 megawatt FRM 11 reactor was opened by Bavarian state Premier Edmund Stoiber and federal Interior Minister Otto Schily.

Stoiber said the 435 million-euro (529 million-dollar) reactor "will generate high-technology jobs" and help push Germany to the fore in international research.

Experts from around the world will be able to conduct experiments in medicine, including cancer research, and biology at the plant and carry out tests on materials.

Opponents of the site complain that its cooling water will be pumped into the Isar river.

Germany has agreed to phase out its nuclear power plants before 2020.

It has no means of treating the nuclear waste created by its reactors and sends them to a facility in France. The rail and truck shipments have often been held up by anti-nuclear activists.

WAR.WIRE