What could go worng? Nothing, really. If they handle the plutonium with the same care like they do with our data...

EAfH.

Just make sure you have Steven Segal on board!

-Matt

They can't use the tunnel: France are sending illegal immigrants down it on foot, and we can't risk irradiating future benefit whores.... err... Tax paying, contributing members of society!

Don't worry, though. Dish out Biometric ID cards to the staff on the ferry and they'll be immune to terr'rists anyway.

http://www.mace.manchester.ac.uk/project/research/structures/strucfire/CaseStudy/HistoricFires/InfrastructuralFires/channelTunnel.htm

I think this answers your question...

they remember to shut the doors...

/Mines the orange life jacket.

What? And have it passing close by London and Parliament and millions of voters? Are you crazy? Why in gods name would the government sanction that?

No, far better to send it past The Isle of Man, Wales and the Scilly Isles where there is no one of importance to complain about it and any accident would have negligeble impact on the South East.

So CORE are protesting that were shipping our 'glow in the dark' to another country - IE It is leaving Cumbria.

If they dont want that stuff there, then the answer is to send it elsewhere.

WTF is their problem! Do they think they will miss it.

Well that would mean lots of nasty plutonium filled lorries driving close to London and through The Home Counties. Can't have that, can we, might affect house prices.........

hmm - high sea winds this week - really good choice! No risk whatsoever, as we never have ships running aground..

isnt there still that ship on some sand bank in Blackpool?

This stuff is heavily guarded even more so than John Prescott's lunch box! seeing a nuke train role through Stafford station a couple of years ago, bristling with machine gun carrying guards was slightly unnerving to say the least. They would easily best the level of general (in)competence shown be today's would be terrorists. Trying the terrorist angle on this is just plain bollox.

However problem really being looked at here is if the (possibly inadequate) ship goes down - would be a nasty surprise for the would be salvage hunter!

If I wanted to ship plutonium, I'd probably leak some information about how I was going to do it, and then send it by some completely different means, a week beforehand. Any bets that this ship contains nothing more than a small note saying "April Fool" ?

Just a thought but assuming that the vessel is capable of coping with these kinds of conditions it would actually make it harder for terrorists to try and attack in poor weather anyway.

Mine's the Sou'wester with the the submarine keys in it....

Sellafield/Windscale/Whatever-the-spindoctors-rename-it-to has been disposing of radioactive waste via the sea for decades now. However due to spoilsport eco-types, they now package it and put it on ships.

Funny enough (not laughing) I drove past a convoy of 9 trucks carrying UN 2909-161 packages last week on my way to work. They were 6-8 m long 1.5 - 2 m diameter white caskets, mounted atop 'sketeton' trailers normally used for container transport. Being round, they were wedged between the parallel chassis beams. Nice thick blue nylon rachet-straps held them in place.

I felt really assured, by the presence of a traffic jam and the absence of any (visible) police. In fairness, I have no idea how dangerous this stuff is, but if you need to spread the load over nine 40-tonners, then quantity may suffice in the absence of quality.

I took an alternative route as soon as I could. Not paranoid, just not curious enough to hang around...

"to reveal state secrets and make things easier for terrorists and other ne-er do wells."

Woah the usual retarted poster materializing out of the Internets. Business as usual.

Attacking a roro ferry in the Atlantic is still a bit beyond Zawahiri's means methinks. The problem is the ferry having engine failure then running aground/capsizing/doing the dance of death while losing its finely powdered plutonium oxide cargo. Anyone remember the problems caused by a stranded Uranium Hexafluoride cargo in the late 80s?

How would you like your shellfish today?

I was wondering why the British merchant navy has the value of a cheap flag and no t even charterers are willing to flag under it, but when I see what they are allowing, it doesn't really surprise me!

My brother is Captain at sea, and is one of the few who are actually trained to captain ships, that hold nuclear freight for international transport.

Through him I know a few things about this sort of stuff!

What these idiots are about to do, is absolutely ridiculous!

I am not anti nuclear power plants, because -let's face it- we need them! At the same time though have to make sure that all possible precautions are being taken when radioactive material is being handled.

what the government is doing, is sidestepping many of the rules which were designed to ensure public safety! how on earth can they be so irresponsible!?!?

who ever sanctioned this, should be removed from his/her post immediately!

But who are we anyway? Hasn't the government ind recent years demonstrated, that they are completely above the law, ignoring the peoples wishes etc.

It is disgusting, that people like this are actual leaders of this country!

They should be made to accompany the ship.

Hmmm , let me see given the current poor state of the under maintained Royal Navy main and auxiliary fleet units , the escort vessel would probably end up being a Thames River Police launch and old diesel electric submarine from Portsmouth , the same model that keeps sinking fishing boats when returning from short patrols due to chronic fuel shortages !

Do you really believe there's powdered plutonium in this shipment?

What there is, is bait for the usual lot of incompetent terrorists.

The real stuff was shipped two weeks ago in a string of military cargo craft.

Who's shipping nukular material around the world these days?

Japan isn't interested in Sellafield/Windscale services any more, surely? They're building their own plant at Rokkasho, having caught BNFL falsifying the safety documentation back in 1999, which unusually for the UK actually led to the resignation of the man at the top (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/646230.stm).

Sellafield's Mox plant was supposed to do over a hundred tonnes a year. The best it's done in any year since it opened (in 2002) is less than three tonnes. The French contract is having to be fulfilled using material bought in from elsewhere, not stuff we've made on our own premises.

Almost £500M has been spent on the Mox plant. For what?

Hasn't Sellafield's Thorp plant also been "offline" (aka broken) for the last three years or so too, following the accidental loss of twenty or so tonnes of uranium and plutonium solution? This plant cost over £2Billion, and again, for what? http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article520455.ece

Nuclear industry = big money = BIG LIE.

If Jeremy Clarkson and Top Gear can cross the channel in a Toybota then i think a fully kitted out, modified EX-car ferry re-engineered to carry nuclear fuel should be ok.

I'm interested what people's objections to this really are. Is it just you would prefer them to wait a bit until these high winds die down? Do you not want them to ship it at all? Do you want a fully armed military escort? What part of the process are you complaining about?

I swears it'll be safe me hearties, I swear it on me three hearts with me six fingered hand!

No diesel electric subs down here anymore (not in service anyway) - they closed the submarine base ages ago. Indeed the Royal Navy doesn't operate and diesel-electrics anymore, its a fully nuclear fleet.

Oh wait, there is the Alliance up on stilts round the corner from my office I suppose... hang on, where's it gone? :O

What are we complaining about?

Well, for starters, no-one thinks the current government is capable of doing anything without losing at least half of it - and its budget. I bet it isn't even encrypted!

Secondly, stretched resources and PC commitments ensure that all escorts are authorised to shout sternly at any would-be pirates and have been known to exceed their authority and shake their fists in the heat of the moment on occasions.

Thirdly, when the stolen shipment is discovered in Solihull, the Courts will rule that we have no evidence that the stuff is actually stolen and it should be returned to the innocent but persecuted (insert fave group here) and let them be left in peace to pursue their hobbies.

I think our future lies in Nuclear power - but - Nuclear + UK + Big bungs = Worry.

Don't tell the french farmers, they think it's welsh lamb

@daniel surely you jest , however RN do have on current special lease one Spanish and one German D/E submarine they allowed to borrow them from time to time (nuke's are very noisy beasties and can be heard coming from a hundred miles away and one suspects they would love to get their hands on the newest German fuel power cell class as these babies are so sneaky and so quiet they can sail up behind any current nuke and the crew on the other boat would never be the wiser for weeks at a time) !

@ Mr. Chris

I thought it was an INF2 ship being used? Your link is for an INF3

http://www.pntl.co.uk/pntl-fleet/bnfl-ships.asp

suggests it's the Atlantic Osprey being used, in which case, I'm sure you can check the local paper for shipping movements or the Lloyds List and it will tell you when it docks and when it will embark.

This really is a 'non-story' though. Don't go on your hols to Cornwall, you really will be irradiated. I suspect most of those having a grumble also complain about electricity pylons/mobile phone masts and wear copper bangles.