Billionaire joins Sellafield protest

Norway says discharges from Sellafield reach its shores

A Norwegian billionaire is protesting at the Sellafield nuclear plant with two colleagues from environmental group Neptun Networks.

Petter Stordalen, chief executive officer of Choice Hotels Scandinavia ASA in Norway, is staging a peaceful protest at the reprocessing plant in Cumbria.

There have been protests from the Norwegian Government about discharges from Sellafield into the sea, which it claims then drift north and affect marine life in Scandinavia.

A spokesman for Cumbria Police said they were monitoring the protest at the British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL), and said the three had "not broken any law".

Mr Svendsen is a member of the Coastal Party

Mr Stordalen is accompanied by Karl Anton Svendsen from the Norwegian Coastal Party, and Frank Hugo Storelv from Neptun Networks.

They are protesting on a footbridge over an outlet pipe.

A spokesman for BNFL said: "We have absolutely no problem with people exercising their democratic right to protest, all we are asking is that it does not hamper our operations in any way.

"We have spoken to Neptun on many occasions and have invited them to come in and look around for themselves."

He said that BNFL had met Mr Svendsen on a previous occasion and were willing to talk to him and his colleagues.

British Transport Police, Cumbria Police and the UK Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary are at the plant to monitor the situation.

A Cumbria Police spokesman said: "There are three demonstrators, one of whom is the billionaire.

"They are demonstrating at the footbridge - we have not taken any action because they haven't broken the law."

Legal advice

A British Transport Police spokesman said they were there to make sure the trio did not to stray onto railway lines into the plant.

The government of Norway is taking legal advice on how to stop BNFL discharging radioactive waste into the sea from Sellafield.

Last year, Norwegian environment minister Boerge Brende described Sellafield as "an issue of the utmost importance".

He said there was evidence that since the late 1990s discharges of the radioactive substance technetium-99 had reached the Norwegian coastline.