Flotilla awaits nuclear cargo ships

A flotilla of boats carrying environmental protesters was today lying in wait in the Irish Sea for two ships carrying rejected radioactive plutonium fuel back to Britain from Japan.

About half a dozen boats were anchored just off the coast at Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, where the armed British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) ships were expected to dock later this morning.

Earlier, around six UK police Zodiac boats sailed out down the channel past Piel Island to assemble near the protesters.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace’s flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, was leading another flotilla of about 20 boats shadowing the two freighters, the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal as they approach the port.

The BNFL vessels were completing the last leg of an 18,000-mile journey across the globe which started in Takahama in Japan in July.

The ships were returning five tonnes of plutonium mixed oxide fuel (Mox) to the BNFL nuclear plant at Sellafield after it was rejected by Japan in 1999.