The energy company responsible for transporting two nuclear shipments to Britain from Japan today hit back at claims that the cargo was a target for terrorists.

Activists from the environmental campaign group Greenpeace put to sea today to lead a flotilla of boats in the search for a radioactive shipment on its way to Sellafield.

The navy and air force will be deployed to monitor a shipment of radioactive fuel as it makes its way through the Irish Sea to Sellafield later this month, it emerged today.

Anti-nuclear activists set sail on two boats from Sydney today to join a flotilla that was planning to intercept a ship carrying nuclear material from Japan to Britain.

Greenpeace was today applying to Britain's High Court to prevent a consignment of weapons-usable plutonium being shipped from Japan to the UK.