Two nuclear campaigners have won a $10,000 international award which will be presented in September in Switzerland.

CORE’s Janine Allis-Smith and Martin Forwood, who have campaigned on Sellafield commercial operations since the 1980s, have received the international Nuclear Free Future Award (NFFA) for 2017 under the education category.

Cited for their three decades of work "unmasking and disseminating information on operations at the West Cumbrian site to a world-wide audience", the campaigners said the honour was "unexpected".

They said: "We are honoured to have received NFFA’s Education Award for 2017 and humbled to be joining the list of diverse and distinguished winners of the past.

"Since the 1980s when Sellafield was preparing to double its commercial reprocessing activities, we have focused not only on acting locally but also being the ‘eyes and ears’ for the many interested parties world-wide on Sellafield and its many detriments which include site accidents, environmental contamination, health risks, plutonium stockpiles and nuclear transports.

"With decades of uniquely difficult decommissioning yet to come, and with plans for new-build at Moorside, we still have much to do and will face the challenges with the same determination that has seen us through the many highs and lows experienced over the last 30 years in our campaign against an industry we believe still has much to answer for."

CORE was formed in 1980 as the Barrow Action Group to oppose the import of foreign spent fuel through the local docks en route to Sellafield for reprocessing.

"Over the years, the campaign remit of Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment has widened to cover all aspects of site operations with "an emphasis on co-operative work with groups in Sellafield’s customer countries".

Janine and Martin joined CORE as volunteers in the mid 1980s, taking over as health campaigner and campaign coordinator respectively in 1989.

The Nuclear Free Future awards have been presented since 1998 for the individual categories of resistance, education and solutions.

They are made by the Munich-based Nuclear Free Future Foundation whose origins are rooted in global opposition to uranium mining (‘Leave it in the Earth’) and who now supports individuals and initiatives in their ongoing civil and military anti-nuclear work.