Ever since BNFL workers were caught taking short cuts with quality control checks on recycled nuclear fuel, the Cumbrians who depend on Sellafield for a living have felt as though they're under siege from abroad.
The Japanese complain they have lost trust in safety standards at the plant, the Germans and the Swiss have cancelled orders of mixed oxide nuclear fuel (MOX) and there have been renewed calls from Ireland for the entire complex to be shut down.
Add in the fact that Sweden, Iceland and Denmark are also pressing to have the plant closed and it's easy to see why locals are sensitive to international opinion.
Some 6,000 people are employed full-time by British Nuclear Fuels plants at Sellafield and salaries are considered good. Sellafield's production workers - equivalent to "factory floor" staff in other industries - earn a minimum of £27,000 sterling a year (more than £34,500)
Another 4,000 people are employed on contract. The least BNFL staff can earn is £16,300 sterling (almost £21,000).
Unions estimate that the company pays £220 million a year in wages in the region and that close to 40,000 jobs in the wider community depend on income and spending generated by BNFL.
West Cumbrians have little else they can rely on for a living. They inhabit one of the most beautiful parts of Britain, beside the Lake District, in a landscape similar to the most breathtaking parts of Wicklow, Sligo and Donegal.
However, like Donegal, the poor infrastructure and sheer physical isolation of the region makes economic development difficult. The only industry which comes close to Sellafield in terms of the numbers employed is the nuclear submarine shipyard at Barrow-in-Furness. Tourism shows potential, but wages are comparatively poor.
Consequently, the people of West Cumbria have had enough of Irish attempts to close down their plant. "If you close Sellafield you might as well close the whole of West Cumbria," they tell visitors.
Mr Jim Horspool, a retired plutonium worker from Seascale, the village a kilometre from Sellafield, was so annoyed by Irish complaints about the nuclear plants that he wrote a protest letter to his local newspaper, the Whitehaven News.
He wrote that he was "incensed" that the Republic continued to demand the closure of the plant and said our fears about radioactive discharges were based on "unsubstantiated, anecdotal scaremongering".
He even argued that the Republic should be grateful that BNFL "makes a very substantial contribution to the British government coffers that helps fund the handouts which the EU lavishes on the Republic of Ireland".
He said BNFL money indirectly helped the Republic "to live in the style to which they have become accustomed".
Contacted last week, Mr Horspool apologised for "always berating the Irish when I meet them". Otherwise he was unrepentant, finding it "utterly distressing" that people whose health is not at risk from the plant want to shut it.
"We've put our foot in it on MOX, but that's not a safety issue. Closing the reprocessing plants would be a terrifying prospect for this area."
A self-employed man in his 40s from the nearby town of Whitehaven agreed with the letter's criticism of the Republic. He reserved particular criticism for one of Ireland's famous sons.
"You've got that guy Bono gobbing off. If I was as rich as him I'd want the plant shut too. But I depend on it for some of my living. There's hardly anyone in West Cumbria who doesn't get part of their income from Sellafield.
"Of course there are health risks connected to the plant but what do you do? Do you shut the place down? It's a Catch 22."
Even though his criticism of Sellafield was mild, he preferred that his name was not printed as his business partly depended on the complex.
Union representatives at the Sellafield plant are similarly unfazed by possible health risks. Mr John Caines, convenor of the GMB union at Sellafield, says it's a threat worth living with.
"If you go to the church in Whitehaven you'll see a memorial in the back of the grounds there. That's a tribute to 1,000 people who've lost their lives in the coal mining industry in West Cumbria. There's a risk in everything you do. You have to see whether the benefit outweighs the risk and we believe in the nuclear industry it does. "Leukaemia hasn't been a cause of concern to the workers. One in four people die of cancer everywhere. We're the most studied workforce in the country."
Sellafield workers aren't the only ones in the area convinced that the rewards of working at the nuclear complex are well worth the risks. BNFL advertised 20 jobs at the plant recently. There were more than 2,000 applicants.
Along with their minimum salary of £27,000 a year, workers in the production area get almost six weeks' holidays and a 35-hour working week under an agreement negotiated by the union, which comes into effect on Saturday.
However, there are signs of discontent among staff. Some workers are said to be unhappy that while the new pay deal includes a pensionable "annualised hours payment", it significantly cuts the potential for overtime.
Earlier this year, robot control arms in "a highly-active radiation area" were deliberately sabotaged, apparently by a member of staff. Last September, a screw and "miscellaneous solid debris" were found in two nuclear rods, causing BNFL to suspect the items were placed there deliberately.
The incidents moved local campaigning group Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE) to describe the plant as being "in the hands of inefficient managers and bored workers with grudges against the company". Sellafield management takes pride at the pay and working conditions but admits that job satisfaction is something it has got to address.
Doubts are also being raised about the long-term economic viability of reprocessing. Sellafield's order books are full for several more years but no new orders are coming in and the quality control lapse at the MOX demonstration facility has made getting new custom even more difficult.
Reports suggest tensions between managers at BNFL. Younger managers are said to want to wind down manufacture of uranium and plutonium and believe the future lies with waste management and clean-up operations.
The man who took over as chief executive of BNFL earlier this month, Mr Norman Askew, admitted during his first trip to the plant that "reprocessing is not as big a part of the business as it once was". However, he reassured the workforce that it "still matters".
"There's a £12 billion reprocessing order book for THORP alone," he said, "so you can't just walk away from your investments and forget about it. That would be crazy. People should not get nervous about BNFL doing other things. They should see it as strengthening rather than weakening Sellafield."
Already there are efforts to diversify West Cumbria's economic base. Whitehaven, which used to be the third biggest port in Britain when it made its money from the slave trade, is being redeveloped for tourism. More than 20 companies have settled at the nearby Westlands Science and Technology Park.
However, Mr Martin Forwood, of CORE, says BNFL has used the park to increase its control of the local economy and says the majority of companies which have settled there are dependent on the nuclear industry.
He accepts that his opposition to Sellafield puts him in the minority but says the stagnation of the reprocessing business has caused many locals to begin to question Sellafield.
"The BNFL employees are an exceptionally well paid workforce compared to anything else West Cumbria has to offer. But people are at long last beginning to accept that there is no future in reprocessing. A lot of the workforce are doing a job that's thoroughly discredited.
"If Sellafield stopped reprocessing it would create a much better atmosphere to generate new business and new jobs. We don't accept jobs should come before safety. It's time people were given the opportunity to do some meaningful work that they can take some pride in."