Britain shares nuclear plant concerns, envoy insists
The British Ambassador tonight attempted to allay fears about future British nuclear energy policy.
As Opposition parties expressed fears about a new generation of nuclear plants like Sellafield located across the Irish Sea, Ambassador Stewart Eldon said Britain also shared these concerns.
The British government’s long-awaited Energy Review said today that nuclear power stations could make a significant contribution to meeting the country’s future energy needs but didn’t specify how many it may build or at which locations.
The Irish Government has already said it will oppose any plans by Britain to build new nuclear power stations.
Mr Eldon emphasised tonight that the Energy Review’s aims were to tackle climate change and deliver safe, clean, energy at affordable prices.
“I’m sure the Irish Government would entirely share these two objectives,” he said at a press briefing at the British Embassy in Dublin.
Speaking of Irish concerns about nuclear energy, he said: “A lot of concerns raised in Ireland are exactly the same as we have in Britain and we have no interest in ignoring them.”
Mr Eldon reiterated that the nuclear energy debate should be based on sound and rational science.
Earlier, the Labour Party said that accidents at any of the proposed new nuclear power stations could have catastrophic consequences for Ireland.
“We in Ireland will have to put up with ongoing discharge of harmful waste into the Irish Sea as well as with the ever-present threat of nuclear explosion or a major terrorist attack,” said TD Emmet Stagg.
Fine Gael called on the Irish Government to consider taking legal action against the construction of any new stations.
“Any increase in British reliance on nuclear power will have nothing but harmful effects on Ireland,” foreign affairs spokesman Bernard Allen added.
Sinn Féin’s Louth TD Arthur Morgan said he will write to British Prime Minister Tony Blair to register his party’s opposition to its nuclear policy.
“Nuclear power can never be a viable option. I will be making very clear to the British government and to the nuclear industry that we are very serious about defending the health and safety of the people of Ireland,” he said.
Friends of the Earth called on the Taoiseach to make a pledge that the Government would never buy nuclear-generated electricity from the UK.
“It would be hypocritical in the extreme for the Government to campaign to close Sellafield and then turn around and let the ESB buy electricity from a new nuclear station,” said spokesman Oisin Coghlan.
