AROUND 150 Greenpeace activists today occupied the site of a nuclear power station.They entered Sizewell B in Suffolk at around 7am.A spokesman for Suffolk Police confirmed intruders had entered the site and were climbing on the roofs of buildings and unfurling banners.

AROUND 150 Greenpeace activists today occupied the site of a nuclear power station.

They entered Sizewell B in Suffolk at around 7am.

A spokesman for Suffolk Police confirmed intruders had entered the site and were climbing on the roofs of buildings and unfurling banners.

A Greenpeace spokesman said the action was part of a campaign to oppose Government plans to build a new generation of nuclear power stations.

mfl About 40 activists climbed up ladders and on to the roof of the 20 metre high cooling water pump house on the site.

They unfurled 15 banners saying "No More Nuclear".

Greenpeace activist Melanie Hill, the group's spokeswoman at the site, said: "We all arrived by coach and vans this morning. Many teams went through the gate-house, there wasn't much security.

"Other teams used step ladders to get over the perimeter fence and put bits of carpet over the razor wire at the top.''

The plant is patrolled by private security guards.

Some guards were inside some of the site buildings but no attempt had yet been made to arrest or round up the activists, Ms Hill said.

Stephen Tindale, executive director of Greenpeace, said it was the first time the group had occupied a nuclear plant.

"We have never done this before, we have campaigned against nuclear power for 30 years and have held protests at Sellafield but we have never gone on to a nuclear power site before,'' he said.

"That is an indication of the urgency we feel about the Government's plans for nuclear power in the UK.

"Today's protest is not about the security of nuclear power sites but to expose the Government's mad desire to build more nuclear power plants.''

Sizewell B is run by British Energy and was the last nuclear plant to be built, between 1988 and 1995.

The site is near Leiston on the Suffolk coast. It has a single nuclear pressurised water reactor producing 1188 megawatts of electricity.

Greenpeace believes Sizewell B would probably become the first site of the new generation of nuclear plants and a Sizewell C site.

Sizewell A, built largely in the 1950s and 60s, is just next door to Sizewell B, but is run by BNFL and is a Magnox reactor.

A spokesman for British Energy was not available for comment.