plutonium

Backers of the controversial MOX plant at Sellafield, which promised to turn toxic waste into a useable fuel that could be sold worldwide, had claimed the plant would make a profit of more than £200m in its lifetime, producing 120 tonnes of recycled fuel a year.

But an investigation published in today's Independent newspaper reveals what the government has been trying to keep secret - that technical problems and a dearth in orders has meant it has produced just 6.3 tonnes of fuel since opening in 2001.

Since building work began in the 1990s the plant has absorbed over £1 billion in public subsidies - money which could have been far better invested in developing renewable energy projects.

Mention Cherbourg and what springs to mind? Brigit Bardot skipping through the rain with a song on her lips, twirling one of those famous umbrellas? Sadly, that was all a long time ago and the quaint port of Jacques Demy's masterpiece is now a major link in the fuel chain for Japan's nuclear power stations.

Yesterday, a shipment of plutonium mixed oxide (Mox) fuel left France bound for Japan. It's the first shipment of Mox fuel to Japan in eight years, and the largest shipment of plutonium the world has ever seen - 1.8 tonnes of it in fact, enough to make 225 nuclear weapons.

Nuclear free seas flotilla 2002

The Rainbow Warrior took its place among The Nuclear Free Irish Sea Flotilla at an official launch in Dublin on Sunday.

Dublin's Lord Mayor, Councillor Dermot Lacey, along with politicians and celebrities unveiled the flotilla, which will sail out into the Irish Sea to peacefully protest against the two nuclear freighters carrying rejected plutonium fuel back from Japan.

BNFL shipment: Pacific Pintail

Japan's largest nuclear utility has announced that a safety cover-up at its nuclear power plants has been going on for decades - a devastating blow to an already embattled nuclear industry, with global implications.