UK News 17-09-2002 Plutonium Transport Ships Arrive In Cumbria who: Greenpeace what: Pursue BNFL plutonium carriers to port where: BARROW IN FURNESS when: This morning snippet: "A heavily-guarded shipload of returned radioactive nuclear fuel from Japan has completed its controversial journey to Cumbria," reports the BBC this morning. Half-a-dozen boatloads of environmental protesters were "lying in wait" for the ships off the coast of Barrow in Furness, says The Evening Standard, under the watchful eye of six police Zodiac boats. Greenpeace`s flagship, the Rainbow Warrior, led a flotilla of about 20 boats shadowing the two freighters in the Irish Sea. Protestors claim the Pacific Pintail and Pacific Teal are a target for terrorists and carry enough plutonium to make 50 bombs, but the British government says the nuclear material is a harmless ceramic which can be handled with rubber gloves. "It is an embarrassing moment for BNFL and the government," says The Guardian. "It has cost more than £113m to return 40 tonnes of unused mixed plutonium oxide and uranium fuel (Mox) from Japan, all in an effort to generate a new trade in providing fuel for Japanese reactors which looks increasingly unlikely to happen." [... more]

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