Staff writer

OKUMA, Fukushima Pref. -- In the latest step toward commercial utilization of plutonium at nuclear power plants in Japan, a British freighter carrying mixed-oxide fuel berthed here under escort Monday.

Guarded by a flotilla of Maritime Safety Agency patrol boats, the Pacific Teal sailed into port at dawn after a five-day delay due to rough seas.

The mixed-oxide fuel was unloaded within sight of its destination -- the nuclear reactors of Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

After unloading the fuel, the 4,863-ton Pacific Teal left port late in the afternoon and rejoined its sister ship, the 5,271-ton Pacific Pintail, in the Pacific Ocean off Fukushima Prefecture to sail on to Fukui on the Sea of Japan coast via the Tsugaru Strait between Honshu and Hokkaido.

The Pacific Pintail is carrying eight MOX assemblies to Kansai Electric Power Co.'s Takahama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture. The two ships are expected to arrive Friday.

The fuel program, known as "pluthermal," involves burning pellets of MOX fuel inside light-water reactors to generate heat for producing electricity.

At least 30 MSA ships and seven MSA helicopters guarded the Pacific Teal, and they quickly overtook protest boats that were darting about the British freighter as it began entering the atomic plant's port facility.

The Pacific Teal docked at 5:45 a.m., delivering four casks of MOX -- the nation's first commercial shipment of the fuel.

The crew and Tepco employees then prepared to offload the 32 MOX assemblies, altogether weighing 8.3 tons and containing 210 kg of plutonium.

An oil fence was set up to block the entry of the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise and its three banner-toting inflatable boats. The power plant meanwhile blared from loudspeakers the French and British national anthems. The MOX fuel was reprocessed in the two countries.

"We got more of an escort than the Pacific Teal did on its trip from halfway around the globe," said Shaun Burnie, research director of Greenpeace's campaign against plutonium.

Tepco doubled its security guards for the delivery, officials said, without providing a specific figure.

After concluding tests that determined that radioactivity on the surface of the casks was within safety standards, the cargo was slowly offloaded onto trucks for transport to the plant's No. 3 reactor for storage.

A single MOX assembly is made up of 60 rods, each of which is 3 percent to 4 percent plutonium. Roughly two-thirds of the plutonium will be consumed when the assemblies are inserted in a boiling water reactor at the plant, officials said.

Electricity generated from the recycled fuel will reach Tokyo residents as early as February, when the reactor, now down for a regular inspection, goes back online.

With the shutdown of the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor following a sodium leak and subsequent coverup in 1995, the government and power industry shifted their focus to MOX, seeing it as the only viable means to gain energy self-sufficiency and to halt the growth of the nation's plutonium stockpile.

Calling the pluthermal project the "surest path to efficient uranium use" Tsuneo Futami, director of the No. 1 power plant, said the recent revelation that production data for a yet-to-be-shipped batch of MOX fuel for a Kansai Electric Power plant in Fukui Prefecture "must be taken to heart."

"We hope to gain public support by responding to the public's questions and doubts thoroughly at community meetings," he said.

Tepco plans to gradually replace 30 percent of the uranium fuel in its core with MOX.

By 2010, the utility plans to have nine tons of plutonium reprocessed from spent fuel shipped back as MOX.

The Pacific Teal triggered protests from countries all along its path from the moment it prepared to sail from Barrow in northwest England two months ago.

With its original departure delayed two days by protesters who blocked its passage, and routes via the Panama Canal and around Cape Horn inadvisable due to strong local opposition, and with its scheduled docking last Wednesday postponed due to inclement weather, the ship's passage has been beset by obstacles from start to finish.

"We've had to overcome many obstacles -- public opposition, weather and other troubles -- to get this far," said Kazuya Sugiyama, head of public relations at Tepco. "Many issues remain, such as gaining public confidence, but today I feel sure we will make headway there, too."

Although plutonium is a byproduct of nuclear chain reactions and is not a new presence in reactors, the use of MOX has met fierce resistance from antinuclear activists worldwide.

Plutonium is known as a volatile and harmful element, and plutonium-blend fuel is considered easily convertible into weapons-grade material.

About 20 local residents and students demonstrated outside the Fukushima plant, chanting, "Stop filling our neighborhood with nuclear power plants. Down with MOX fuel. Down with militarism."

Holding up a banner demanding a halt to the MOX program and lamenting the small turnout of protesters, Chiiko Watanabe, 46, said, "Everyone is afraid of an accident. But people are giving up, because they think everything has been decided -- and that's just not true."

The governments of New Zealand and Fiji protested the passage of the dangerous cargo in neighboring waters, as the Pacific Teal, outfitted with three 30mm guns, traveled in convoy with the Pacific Pintail, similarly armed and also loaded with MOX, around the Cape of Good Hope and through the South Pacific.