NEXT month the United States will quietly attempt to ship 140kg of weapons-grade plutonium across the Atlantic to France. The controversial shipments are likely to attract criticism from anti-nuclear groups around the world.

The radioactive material — enough, critics say, for 50 or more nuclear weapons — will be carried by ships owned by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) and be guarded by Britain’s nuclear police force.

Since the September 11 attacks the possibility that fuel shipments could be ambushed by terrorists has made the job of guarding such cargos more critical than ever.

Bill Pryke, chief constable of the UK Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary, will send at least 30 of his 613 officers to guard the ships en route to France. Pryke’s police are leaders in their field who train with the Royal Navy and the SAS. They know how to deal with pirates and terrorists, how to survive in violent Atlantic seas when washed overboard, and how to look menacing to over-enthusiastic protesters.

For years radioactive material that could potentially be used in a dirty bomb — uranium and plutonium — has been given an armed guard in transit by rail, road or sea. Protesters in Cumbria refer to the officers who work the BNFL ships as “sea plods”. In 1999 the sea plods helped to guard mixed oxide (Mox) fuel on its way to Japan. The next year, amid the glare of international attention, they rode shotgun on the return journey.

When not on the road, the constabulary guards seven civil facilities, including Sellafield, Europe’s biggest nuclear facility, in Cumbria.

Next year, as part of a shake-up of the industry that was given Royal Assent last month, the constabulary will become an autonomous armed force with its own statutory police authority. After almost 50 years of policing, it will be independent of the nuclear operators — BNFL, Urenco and the UK Atomic Energy Authority — who have, until now, paid its bills.

In future Pryke will report directly to Patricia Hewitt, the Trade and Industry Secretary, and his force will receive its instructions and budget from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, the new clean-up body that is to take ownership of Britain’s 21 principal nuclear facilities. The force’s transformation will be complete when, on April 1 next year, it becomes the Civil Nuclear Constabulary.

Pryke says the change has been a long time coming. Six years ago Antony Pointer, his predecessor, resigned after a dispute over policing the Dounreay site in Caithness. At issue was the balance between budgetary pressures and the need for tight security. After resigning, Pointer told a Commons committee that Britain urgently needed an independent overview of nuclear policing.

The row became bitter, but marked a turning point for the police force, Pryke says. “The organisation has really moved on since then.”

Finally independent, the Civil Nuclear Constabulary — a secretive and aggressive body, according to anti- nuclear campaigners — will be required to be as open and accountable as any other force.

Pryke says: “It became very clear that there was a requirement to push the agenda forward. We need to separate out the police force so that it is independent of the nuclear industry, to improve its accountability, its transparency, its openness.”

The launch of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority next year marks a sea change in the industry. The era of discovery is over and the need to clean up the damage, and wind down the remaining nuclear sites, is the new priority.

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