By Tony Samstag BBC reporter in Oslo

The government of Norway is taking legal advice on how to stop British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) discharging radioactive waste into the sea from the Sellafield plant in north-west England.

The warning came at a conference on pollution of the North Sea in the Norwegian city of Bergen.

Norwegian reindeer were affected by Chernobyl

The hundreds of demonstrators waving banners and chanting slogans calling for the closure of Sellafield are an indication of some of the anxieties that have come to play important part in Norway's foreign policy.

The 1986 disaster at Chernobyl, the nuclear power station in Ukraine, and its profound effects on the natural environment, had a traumatic effect on Norway.

Barely three weeks after the accident, Norwegian scientists sounded the first environmental note of warning when they announced that reindeer, and people who lived with and from them, might be at risk of radioactive contamination.

This proved to be the case, not only for reindeer but for other livestock and foodstuffs in the forests and on the farms.

Norway is still coping with the aftermath.

Impact on fishing

Small wonder, then, that radioactive discharges from Sellafield have been a concern of successive governments, as well as the public, for years.

Last year, environment minister Boerge Brende described Sellafield as "an issue of the utmost importance" because of evidence accumulating since the late 1990s that discharges of the radioactive substance technetium-99 from the plant had reached the Norwegian coastline.

Norway's environment minister says the issue is of "utmost importance"

"Fish is Norway's second largest export business," Mr Brende continued. "We cannot sit still and watch our coastal areas being polluted."

Mr Brende also cited the controversial mixed oxide (MOX) nuclear fuel manufacturing operation at Sellafield as further cause for concern, particularly as it represented "a potential terrorist target".

The Norwegians have fought similar battles before, most notably against acid rain, much of which was also attributed to British industry.

It took almost 30 years, but they won. They should not be underestimated this time around.