A small flotilla, including a vessel from Ireland, is sailing close to the Cherbourg coast in France in advance of the arrival of two nuclear transportation ships carrying enough weapons grade plutonium to make 40 bombs.
The company transporting the shipment has secured a court order preventing any protestors coming near the ships, which are expected to dock at a military port at around 2 or 3am after travelling from the US.
The court ruled that anyone found to be in breach of the order will be fined €15,000, a much lower fine than the company sought.
A large number of police have arrived in Cherbourg to ensure that the the Pacific Pintail and the Pacific Teal can unload their nuclear cargo at first light and then proceed on a 1,000 kilometre journey by road to a nuclear reprocessing plant.
A Greenpeace ship and the Atlantic Nuclear Free Flotilla are mounting an overnight protest, although they are remaining outside the legal exclusion zone.
Earlier, French police arrested a group of Greenpeace activists who were blocking a road to be used to transport the cargo to thhe reprocessing plant.
Separately, Irish anti-nuclear campaigners gathered in Cherbourg have said the Irish Government should do more at EU level to oppose such transportations.
A spokesman said the process of moving nuclear material across the sea was 'dangerous, poorly protected, unnecessary and uneconomic'.
