MILNTHORPE-based anti-nuclear campaigner Marianne Birkby led a demonstration on the opening day of consultation over the proposed Moorside plant near Sellafield.

Mrs Birkby and fellow members of Radiation Free Lakeland, the protest group she founded, are opposed to the plans by the NuGen consortium to build three reactors at Moorside.

The company wants to begin construction in 2020 with the first reactor operating from 2024.

A 10-week consultation about the development is being held with 20 public events organised across Cumbria, including Kendal Town Hall on July 7.

The first was held on Saturday at the Moorside Information Centre in Whitehaven.

Mrs Birkby, a wildlife artist, claims the new plant would 'increase the risk' to the people of Cumbria on top of that which already exists at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing facility