Norway is considering legal action against Britain to stop radioactive discharges from the Sellafield nuclear plant. Speaking in Dublin, Norway's Environment Minister, Borge Brenda, said that his government fears higher radioactivity levels, which they believe were caused by Sellafield, may affect their fishing industry.
However, Britain's Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, told the Norwegian delegation that Britain continued to comply with all regulations concerning radioactive discharges.
Tonight British Nuclear Fuels said that the recent shutdown of reactors at Sellafield and at a second plant in Chapelcross in Scotland involved no safety risks to the public. Although certain equipment defects were detected, they plan to restart the reactors in the New Year, once they have the approval of the British Nuclear Installations Inspectorate.
At the meeting with the Minister responsible for Nuclear Safety, Joe Jacob, this morning, Mr Brenda confirmed that Norway pledged its support to Ireland's campaign to stop operations at Sellafield. He said that, while radioactivity in fish stocks was within safe levels, they must act now before the situation became more serious. He cited the example of lobsters, which were being found with increasing levels of radioactivity, although within EU safety limits.
Minister Jacob said that the Irish authorities had not been officially informed of the recent shutdown of certain reactors at Sellafield, and said that the lack of trust was growing all the time.
While Norway's support for the Irish position on Sellafield is encouraging, it in no way guarantees that the British government will do anything to curtail operations at the plant. The controversial new MOX unit at Sellafield is still scheduled to be commissioned on Thursday, despite all Ireland's legal efforts to date.
This afternoon, Ireland sent its latest submission on Sellafield to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea in Hamburg.
