Protestors leap in front of nuclear waste ships

GREENPEACE protesters leapt into the sea in front of two ships carrying nuclear waste off the Australian mainland yesterday after an overnight game of maritime cat-and-mouse.

The controversial transportation of the weapons-grade material is the first of its kind since the September 11 attacks on the United States, and has sparked international outrage from governments and environmental groups who say that the cargo is a tempting target for militants on the high seas.

The lightly armed ships are returning the waste that state-owned British Nuclear Fuels Plc (BNFL) shipped to Japan three years ago but agreed to take back after it emerged BNFL had falsified documentation associated with the cargo.

BNFL described the protesters' actions as "lunacy" and said Greenpeace had "endangered lives".

Greenpeace's Nuclear Free Flotilla caught up with the British-registered freighters, Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal, with about 495 pounds of plutonium on board, in international waters in the Tasman Sea around dawn yesterday. New South Wales Senator Ian Cohen and another protester threw themselves into the water just 450 yards in front of the oncoming ships, brandishing a Nuclear Free Pacific banner.

BNFL hit back at Greenpeace, saying the protesters who had jumped into the sea had endangered not only their own lives but the lives of others.

The Australian Democrats, Greens and Greenpeace have all said the shipment put the Australian mainland at risk but a spokesman for Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the government was satisfied about security.

The shipment is destined for the British reprocessing plant at Sellafield on England's northwest coast.

The Irish government, whose coastline is just 110 miles across the Irish Sea, has long campaigned for the plant's closure.