Greenpeace volunteers get into "top security" nuclear control centre

Sizewell: Volunteers enter the site

Britain's nuclear power stations exposed as easy terror targets

At 6.10 this morning Greenpeace volunteers today exposed the complete lack of security at Britain's flagship nuclear power station, Sizewell B when they were able to walk en masse into the plant and easily gain access to the plant's control building and reactor dome. Nineteen people peacefully gained access to the sensitive control building, nine of whom then made their way to the roof of the reactor dome. Disturbingly, this is the second time Greenpeace volunteers have unopposed been able to break into the nuclear site. Last October 140 volunteers including several in life size Homer Simpson costumes encountered little security as they breached the perimeter fence and occupied rooftops. It took 25 minutes for security guards to arrive at the scene.

This time volunteers gained access to British Energy's Sizewell plant by cutting a hole in the two-wire fences, which are all that separate the nuclear facility from a public beach. The fence is just a few metres from the door to the control building, which 19 volunteers managed to gain access to by using a ladder to reach a door on the side of the building 10 metres off the ground. Nine of these volunteers then used ladders to climb onto the reactor dome. No alarm was heard when the fences were breached and it took five minutes for three unarmed private security guards to appear on the scene.

Greenpeace volunteer Rob Gueterbock speaking from the reactor dome said,
"Sizewell is easier to get into than a Norwich night-club. It is a terrifying thought that if we can do this then anyone can. We wouldn't do anything to interfere with the plant but if terrorists targeted a nuclear power station it would be deadly. These places contain stores of dangerous radioactive waste, nuclear fuel, as well as the reactor itself. Sabotage could spread radioactive fallout for miles around."

After the September 11th attacks, local MP and former Tory environment minister John Gummer called for European countries to work together against nuclear terrorism. This followed an International Atomic Energy Authority warning that a nuclear attack was far more likely and could come in the form of a dirty bomb, or the targeting of nuclear facilities to cause a Chernobyl style disaster. US intelligence reports have said that the fourth hijacked plane on September 11th was heading for the nuclear plant at Three Mile Island. The US based Nuclear Control Institute has pointed to court testimony that Al Qaeda training camps offered instruction in urban warfare at installations including power plants.

The UK Government too has warned that terrorists would like to get their hands on nuclear material or carry out a nuclear attack. Yet despite a reported stepping up of security around civil nuclear sites, the fact that large numbers of Greenpeace volunteers have twice been able to enter Sizewell with no security to challenge them, has exposed these measures as woefully inadequate.

Greenpeace is demanding that the Government force the nuclear industry to massively improve security at Britain's nuclear power stations with immediate effect. However since nuclear power stations or the radioactive waste they create can never be made100% secure, the safest thing to do is to plan to close all our reactors down and abandon proposals to build new ones.

Rob Gueterbock added,
"The Government and nuclear industry should be doing everything to make these dangerous places as secure as possible but ultimately people don't need to live with this risk. We can get all our electricity from clean safe renewable energy. Terrorists are unlikely to blow up a wind farm or make a dirty bomb from a solar panel."

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Contact:
Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255