The equipping of British Nuclear Fuels ships with heavy-calibre machine-guns was an outrage, a Fianna Fail MEP, Mr Jim Fitzsimons, has said.
"This plan has been confirmed by the British government, which is afraid that the plutonium being transported will fall into the hands of international terrorists," he said, and it was in response to US demands.
He said Sellafield had not been given the green light to begin reprocessing plutonium from spent Japanese fuel, but this move meant "the decision to allow production of such spent fuel from Japan only has to be rubber-stamped by the British government in the near future."