The controversial transport of a shipment of MOX nuclear waste through the Irish Sea has been "incredibly damaging" to the British nuclear industry, the chief executive of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) admitted last night.
Speaking after the consignment of plutonium was safely delivered to Sellafield reprocessing plant amid a storm of protest by environmentalists, Mr Norman Askew said the company could never forget the "stupidity of what had happened".
He said: "This came from a mistake and is something that BNFL and people on this site will never forget."
There was tight security around the port of Barrow-in-Furness as the first of the two BNFL ships docked early yesterday, the final stage of a two-month, 18,000-mile voyage from Japan.
Vessels with demonstrators on board which shadowed the ship carrying the consignment of plutonium mixed oxide fuel (MOX) were kept back by armed police boats as it sailed into the final stretches of Walney channel in Barrow.
Protesters, including the Irish MEP, Ms Nuala Ahern, flew banners reading "Stop Plutonium Transport" while the Pacific Pintail docked and unloaded its five-tonne cargo, which Greenpace claims holds enough plutonium to fashion 50 nuclear bombs.
More than 100 police co-ordinated the security operation with Britain's Defence Ministry.
The fuel, contained in white armoured flasks, was loaded on to a train and delivered to the BNFL Sellafield reprocessing plant 40 miles away.
It is due to be placed in a "cooling pond" storage facility until BNFL gives the go-ahead for it to be recycled into new fuel.
The consignment was originally shipped to Japan in 1999 for Kansai Electric Power Company's nuclear generating facility. BNFL was forced to bring it back after admitting quality checks were falsified.
It has cost more than €153 million to return the shipment from the Far East. BNFL has not ruled out sending the consignment back to Japan after it has been recycled.
Speaking from the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior, which headed the protest flotilla, Ms Ahern said the shipment represented an "unimaginable risk" to the Irish public.
She added: "Our efforts are sending a clear message to the British government and BNFL - the Irish Sea should be kept nuclear-free.
"These shipments represent a risk of unimaginable proprtions and cannot be justified on moral, economic or environmental grounds."
The Green Party environmental spokesman, Mr Ciarán Cuffe, said this week's protest had exposed BNFL to worldwide ridicule.
He added: "I'm glad the protest was carried out peacefully. We have now drawn attention to the real threat that this shipment poses to the people of Ireland and Britain."
Greenpeace described the return of the plutonium consignment from Japan as a "final humiliation" for BNFL.
A spokesman said: "Its reject plutonium is now back where it started. In the course of the journey, BNFL has taken great risks with environmental safety, ignored the protests of 80 countries around the world and outraged public opinion on four continents.
"Many people came together today to tell BNFL that they are taking liberties in transporting dangerous plutonium across the high seas and they do not want to see it happening again," he said.
Admiral Sandy Woodward, an independent spokesman on the security surrounding the transport of nuclear cargo, said BNFL had gone far beyond what was required to ensure the shipment was safe.
"They have not just met government guidelines, they have exceeded them," he said.