Greenpeace activists stormed a nuclear reactor in an early morning raid here today, occupying high-security locations at the facility, the environmental group said. A four-wheel-drive vehicle was used to block gates while two trucks carrying about 30 protesters dressed as nuclear waste barrels, ran into the grounds of the Lucas Heights plant, Australia's only nuclear reactor, which produces isotope for medical products.
One team of protesters scaled a radio tower and another group of six climbed to the top of the reactor facility.
Others climbed onto a waste-storage facility and unfurled banners saying: Nuclear never safe.
Greenpeace campaigner Stephen Campbell said activists were protesting against the safety of a proposed replacement nuclear reactor for Lucas Heights. A new reactor is unnecessary, Campbell said. There's no solution to the problem of radioactive waste.
Dozens of Australian nuclear science and technology organisation workers have been locked out of the facility while government security officers attempt to regain control of the plant.
Police and medical emergency response teams were brought in.
The protest comes on the second day of a forum, being held in central Sydney, about the safety of the proposed replacement reactor.
Bureau Report