ANTI-RADIATION pills have been distributed to scores of factory workers around Hartlepool nuclear power station because of heightened fears of terrorist attack.

The pills have been distributed to workers on the Graythorpe industrial estate, which borders the plant.

Firms within one kilometre of the power station have been given the pills which, if taken quickly after exposure to radiation, can reduce the carcinogenic effects.

Hartlepool Borough Council, whose emergency planning department was responsible the decision, confirmed last night that "two or three" companies were involved. Among them are workers at Able UK.

The tablets flood the thyroid gland with potassium iodate to prevent the absorption of radioactive iodine.

A council spokesman described the move as "a precautionary measure".

British Energy, which runs the Hartlepool plant, played down the significance of the move last night.

A spokesman said: "The distribution of these pills is on the agenda all the time and when they are sent out is out of our hands.

"It is ultimately a decision for the local health authorities or councils."

Plans have also been drawn up for pills to be handed out to residents around Hunterson nuclear plant in Ayrshire, Sizewell in Suffolk, and two sites at Heysham in Lancashire.

Residents near Hinckley Point power station in Somerset and the Torness station in Scotland have already been issued with pills.

Other plants, such as Dungerness in Kent, are stockpiling the pills at local meeting points.

The tablets do not protect people from all the effects of radioactivity, but thyroid cancer is one of the main health problems associated with nuclear fallout from power plant incidents.

No one from Hartlepool Primary Care Group, which was involved in the distribution of the pills, could be contacted last night.