Four members of an Irish environmental group have chained themselves together on the roof of the Sellafield visitor's centre in Cumbria in protest at what they describe as disinformation disseminated about nuclear power by the centre.
The action, from a group called Gluaiseachtis, has been timed to coincide with a Greenpeace-led protest against a MOX shipment, rejected by Japan and returning through Irish waters to Sellafield.
The plutonium shipment bound for Sellafield could be heading for the West of Ireland and Scotland, Greenpeace activists warned this morning.
The Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warriorhas been monitoring the arrival of two ships carrying plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) to Sellafield.
The MOX is being returned after a British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) client in Japan refused to take the material when it emerged that safety records had been falsified.
According to Greenpeace, a route along the west of Ireland may be chosen by BNFL and the British Government in order to avoid the planned protests from the Nuclear Free Irish Sea Flotilla.
The Flotilla is currently gathering at Holyhead in North Wales and could depart in search of the two cargo vessels, the Pacific Pintailand the Pacific Teal, transporting the MOX, later today.
The organisation hopes to confirm the specific route by the nuclear ships by end of today.
The Irish Government, backed by all opposition parties has condemned the arrival of the plutonium shipment.
Following meetings of its Emergencies Committee, the Government agreed to deploy naval vessels and aircraft to track the shipment and to ensure that it did not enter Irish waters.
