Sellafield EC ultimatum on safety
The European Commission has strongly criticised the operators of the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria over failures in its accounting of radioactive material and providing access to inspectors.
The commission also set a deadline of 1 June for British Nuclear Fuels to come up with a plan to clean up a radioactive lake on the site.
Last Friday senior officials from British Nuclear Fuels were in Co Louth in a bid to reassure councillors there that Sellafield was safe.
Unfortunately for them, the trip coincided with reports that the company could not account for how much plutonium was in an old reinforced concrete pond called B30.
The BNFL officials denied they had restricted access to the site and had explanations for the absence of key records.
A spokesman for the Minister for the Environment, Martin Cullen, said the EC ruling was 'hugely significant' as the commission was no longer going to be 'fobbed off' with 'vague information'.
In relation to B30, the spokesman said it was 'alarming' that BNFL could not say how much plutonium was actually in the pond.
