Naval patrol ships and Air Corps reconnaissance aircraft are to be deployed to monitor the passage of a shipment of nuclear material expected through the Irish Sea later this month.
At a meeting of the Government's Emergency Task Force yesterday it was decided to deploy "appropriate resources" to shadow British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BFNL) ships carrying nuclear fuel to the Sellafield plant in Cumbria.
Last night the Department of Defence said naval vessels and Casa reconnaissance planes would be dispatched to monitor the shipment. The Department of Marine and Natural Resources is to co-ordinate the operation, a spokesman said.
The move came as Fine Gael called on the Government to declare immediate and unconditional "war" on the British nuclear industry.
The party leader, Mr Enda Kenny, on a visit to the Greenpeace ship, the Rainbow Warrior, in Dublin yesterday said the Taoiseach must use his close working relationship with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, to step up the Irish campaign against Sellafield.
Five years ago the government had promised to campaign to have Sellafield shut down. "Their spectacular lack of success means that we now have more - not less - of a threat with the opening of the mixed oxide facility.
"The Government must discover as a matter of national urgency whether BNFL has taken the advice of the numerous experts to increase its security spend," he said.
Mr Kenny urged the Taoiseach to demand that the invitation issued last year by BNFL to the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland to visit Sellafield be honoured. It was important, he added, to have an Irish perspective on prevailing conditions.
Mr Kenny outlined how the plant was vulnerable by road, sea, air, rail and pedestrian access and was under threat from international terrorism and said he was not happy to put the lives of any Irish children, including his own, in the hands of BNFL.
Meanwhile, the Minister for the Environment is leading a move to have nuclear energy excluded from an EU initiative to provide energy for developing countries.
Mr Cullen has so far secured commitment from five other EU countries that nuclear energy will not be an option when providing energy for Third World countries.
A letter written by the Minister and signed by the environment ministers from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece and Germany is to be presented to the EU Environment Commissioner at the Earth Summit in South Africa today for consideration.
The Minister also pledged yesterday that he would voice Irish opposition to the Sellafield plant when he meets his British counterparts in Johannesburg.
"I am going to tell them again what the Irish approach is. We are not backing down on the legal approach we have taken. That is going forward," he said.
The British embassy in Dublin later issued a statement in response to Mr Kenny. It said, in part: "What is needed is a sensible debate based on the scientific facts and relevant international standards, with which the UK complies.
"The most irresponsible thing any British government could do at the present time is simply to close Sellafield."
A BNFL spokesman said last night: "Our security arrangements have been reviewed by the Office of Civil Nuclear Safety in the UK in the light of September 11th and they have been judged to be adequately robust to withstand any credible threat."