British vessel leaves Japan for Sellafield despite safety objections from 37 countries

A British ship set out from Japan yesterday carrying a shipment of nuclear fuel for Sellafield yesterday, despite claims by green activists that it was dangerously corroded and could split open.

Protesters gathered in the port of Takahama in central Japan, where the Pacific Pintail began its two-month journey, escorted by a sister ship, the Pacific Teal, and some 30 coast guard vessels.

So far, 37 countries have condemned the shipment or barred it from their waters, also fearing that the cargo is vulnerable to hijacking by terrorists.

Last week, the Labour backbencher David Chaytor wrote to the Transport Secretary, Alistair Darling, asking for documents relating to the two ships operated by British Nuclear Fuels.

Leaks from BNFL revealed that excessive corrosion found on a nuclear transport ship of the same fleet had also been found on the two that set sail yesterday. "It seems clear that any significant corrosion of plates will weaken the vessel's infrastructure," Mr Chaytor wrote.

The ships will sail south through the Pacific and the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia, west across the Southern Ocean and past the Cape of Good Hope.

Shaun Burnie, of Greenpeace, said: "The ships will be going into the Southern Ocean during the worst of the winter months. The ship could founder and break in half, and in weeks radioactivity would enter the sea. It would have a devastating effect on the maritime environment, and tourism in these countries would be finished."

A spokesman for BNFL described the claim as "a particularly ugly piece of propaganda. We can categorically state there are no concerns regarding the condition of the hulls."

Yesterday, Greenpeace abandoned an attempt to obtain an injunction against BNFL stopping the shipment, which it says should be reclassified as radioactive waste.