MONTPELIER — Six Massachusetts women are scheduled to go on trial next week on trespassing charges stemming from a protest at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant two days after the state was hammered by Tropical Storm Irene.

The women, members of the Shut It Down Affinity Group, used a chain and padlock to lock the entrance gate in Vernon on Aug. 30, 2011, and tethered themselves to the fence, group members said.