THE government has ordered Britain's nuclear power stations on to a heightened state of alert amid fears of more terror attacks.

Security status at all the UK's nuclear installations, including the four in Scotland, has been stepped up to "amber alert".

A series of measures across the UK has also seen an increased number of police officers and more searching at the country's railway stations, airports and seaports.

Travellers have been urged to get to airports earlier than they usually would in order to allow time for more baggage searches and other security checks.

And bus and rail passengers are being subjected to random searches, especially in and around London, amid fear of more bomb attacks on buses and trains.

Eurostar train services in southern England were delayed yesterday by a security alert which closed the Ashford international station in Kent for about an hour as police carried out controlled explosions on two pieces of unattended luggage.

Power stations and reprocessing plants are regarded as "high value" targets for terrorists aiming to disrupt electricity supplies, steal radioactive material for use in bombs or even to cause a nuclear explosion.

The last time the plants went to amber alert status, the highest level before red alert status itself, was after the 9/11 attacks in New York.

Non-essential staff were asked to stay away from work on Friday, and car searches were stepped up. The car-free exclusion zones around key buildings were also widened.

A spokesman for British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), which operates the decommissioned Chapelcross near Dumfries and Hunterston A near Ayr, along with the reprocessing site at Sellafield in Cumbria, said: "In common with other Government establishments sites operated by British Nuclear Group, we have moved to a higher state of alert, following the events in London.

"This is a precautionary measure and we have no reason to believe that any of our facilities are under specific threat."

A source at British Energy, which operates the power plants at Torness in East Lothian and also Ayrshire's Hunterston B, confirmed that their sites had also been put on amber alert in accordance with advice from the government.

A spokesman for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority added: "It must be stressed that this is a precautionary measure and doesn't reflect any specific threat."

Some British nuclear installations, including the Sellafield reprocessing centre in Cumbria, already deploy armed guards as a precaution against terrorist attack.

And BNFL is to build a reinforced concrete curtain wall around plutonium storage facilities.

A spokesman for the British Airports Authority said that security had been stepped up at the UK's major airports.

He said: "Security is at a high level in the wake of the incidents last week."

In London, 100 extra "transport operational command unit officers" - Metropolitan Police officers who patrol London's bus and road network - have been put on duty, as well as 80 additional Transport for London staff and 120 traffic wardens to help keep traffic flowing.

Extra search teams, which respond to bomb scares by swiftly clearing tube stations, were also on standby.

In addition, bus drivers have been ordered to search their buses every time they turn around at each end of a run.

It emerged last year that an emergency planning exercise, run in 2003, exposed a number of flaws in the UK's ability to deal with a major terror attack against seaports and airports.

And a simulated terror attack on a nuclear power station in 2002 found confusion and slowness in the emergency response.

Experts said the emergency services needed more equipment and training and that the public needed better information on what they should do in the case of a disaster.

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