The Evening Star, Ipswich, has managed to breach the air exclusion zone over the power stations at Sizewell in Suffolk.

An investigation by the paper has shown how easy it could be for terrorists to attack a nuclear power station from the air.

The Evening Star flew through the one-and-half mile air exclusion zone in an aircraft loaded with what could have been high explosive and flew within 750ft of the power stations.

The paper's findings have now been passed on to energy minister Brian Wilson.

Posing as an aerial photographer, Evening Star photographer Richard Snasdell was able to hire a light aircraft from an East Anglian airport without any questions being asked.

To demonstrate how easy it would have been to smuggle explosives on board, Richard carried with him a bag full of sugar, which would have been big enough to contain seven kilos of the high explosive, Semtex.

Richard said: "I didn't have to give any identification and the booking was made by telephone.

"I didn't ask specifically to fly over it. We had booked a flight to photograph coastal landmarks.

"There was no specific warnings or any indication of what we were doing was wrong."

The Star's revelations follow the conclusions of MPs who last week said the country was ill-prepared to deal with a terrorist attack of September 11 proportions.

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