Working under tight security from helicopters and police, port crews unloaded U.S. military plutonium from a British ship on Wednesday after its arrival in northwest France, nuclear industry officials said. The nuclear material was unloaded from the Pacific Pintail while another ship in the convoy, the Pacific Teal, remained at bay following its role as escort vessel and decoy. The two heavily armed vessels left from Charleston, S.C., on Sept. 20. "The plutonium is going to now be unloaded with the greatest precaution," said Henri Jacques Neau, a spokesman for Cogema, the French company responsible for treating the plutonium, moments before the unloading. It was to be taken to a company processing plant in the La Hague by way of a secret itinerary, he said.
A small flotilla of boats from environmental group Greenpeace mounted a peaceful protest against the arrival of the shipment in the Normandy port of Cherbourg at about 7:20 a.m. local time. "This shipment of weapons plutonium is a wake-up call to the world," said Tom Clements of Greenpeace International. "Rather than ship this dangerous material worldwide now is the time for aggressive steps to halt proliferation of all nuclear weapons materials." The military nature of the arrival in France clearly demonstrates that nuclear weapons materials are a threat to global security and have no place in commerce," he said in a statement.
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Greenpeace led a string of protests against the shipment of 308 pounds of military-grade plutonium -- enough to make nearly 10 Hiroshima-style bombs -- taken from U.S. nuclear warheads. A French court ruled that the environmental group could face fines if any of its boats got closer than 300 yards at sea or 100 yards in port. The highly radioactive substance has been brought to France for conversion into a commercial fuel called MOX at the Cadarache factory in southeast France.
On Tuesday, a dozen militants holding a "Stop Plutonium" banner chained themselves to a truck and blocked a regional highway leading to the Cogema company plant, where the plutonium is to be treated. France's state-of-the-art nuclear technology is being used to help fulfill the terms of a September 2000 U.S.-Russia disarmament accord in which both countries promised to destroy 34 tons of military plutonium. France has received shipments of radioactive material in the past for conversion into MOX fuel, a mixture of plutonium oxide and uranium oxide, but this is the first time weapons-grade plutonium is involved. The U.S. Energy Department must ship the plutonium overseas for conversion because there isn't a plant in the United States that can do it. 
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