Sellafield, Collusion alleged between British Government and BNFL
The Taoiseach has asked the Minister for Energy to raise the manner in which British Nuclear Fuels Ltd dealt with correspondence between Mildred Fox and the British Prime Minister. A Government Spokesman said that the Taoiseach is concerned at the manner in which an Oireachtas member was treated. Deputy Fox had written to Tony Blair expressing concerns about Sellafield. Her letter was passed on to BNFL by the Department of Trade and Industry. The DTI was then advised by BNFL that it believed, in its reply to an Irish TD, it was important to be assertive and not to appear to justify or apologise for the UK nuclear power industry.
Deputy Fox complained to the Taoiseach and described the British Government's attitude on the issue as insulting and derogatory. She also asked him to establish if the British Government has a policy of responding to Irish TDs in a manner different from members of other parliaments. Joe Jacob is to raise the matter with the British Minister for Energy Helen Liddell. Details of the correspondence will be discussed on Channel 4's Dispatches programme tonight.
Speaking at a conference in Newcastle, County Down, this afternoon, Joe Jacob said that the government was relentless in its opposition to the continued operation and expansion of the nuclear industry, particularly in Britain. Sellafield, he said, was the major focus of concern, because of its proximity to Ireland. He said that the risk from the plant was undoubtedly real, with unsavoury implications for our health, safety, economy and our environment.
He said that this risk was totally unacceptable and must be removed. The Minister called on the British government to terminate the reprocessing of nuclear waste at Sellafield. He said that the findings in a recent report by the British Nuclear Installations Inspectorate represented a damning indictment of safety management and safety procedures at the plant.
The SDLP MP for South Down called for the closure of the Sellafield plant. Eddie McGrady told the conference that it was important that the decision to close what he said was this discredited plant was taken immediately by the British government. He said that it was only a matter of time before what he called the nuclear dustbin of the world was consigned to its own dustbin.
He pointed out that the cost of closure and storage would be of daunting proportions and would be paid for not by British Nuclear Fuels, but by the taxpayers. He said that he hoped any reactivated local administration in the North would campaign for the decommissioning of the Sellafield plant, which he described as the greatest nuclear hazard in these islands. The conference is being attended by over 100 local authority members from Ireland and Britain.
