Nuclear shipping fleet gets new ship- with guns?

Reported here:

A NEW “gun boat” which will ship radioactive materials from Sellafield has been launched amid pomp and ceremony in Japan.

The Pacific Heron has been built in Japan by Mitsui Engineering to the highest security specifications and this, The Whitehaven News understands, includes fixed naval guns as a terrorist deterrent while at sea.

It becomes part of the nuclear shipping fleet operated by Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd (PNTL), a subsidiary of British Nuclear Group, the Sellafield operators.

The Pacific Heron will eventually replace The Pacific Teal, which along with its sister ship The Pintail carries Mox fuel and plutonium from Sellafield to Japan. Both are armed with canon along with “other additional physical protection systems only some of which are visible from outside”.

There is also security to protect against potential acts of sabotage. These include the presence on board of armed officers of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary who are specially trained to protect nuclear materials.

More here.

More on Pacific Nuclear Transport Limited here.