TDs call for Sellafield closure after new leak
An Oireachtas committee member called for the closure of the Sellafield nuclear plant today after TDs were informed of a new leak while on a visit to the controversial facility.
Green Party TD, Ciaran Cuffe, who met with British Nuclear Fuels Limited, said TDs were informed of a new minor leak in the main discharge pipe running from Sellafield into the Irish Sea.
“This leak was identified by British Nuclear Fuels Limited in the last few days and as yet there are no specific details available. We have received assurances from BNFL that this is a minor leak,” he said on the visit as part of the Joint Committee on the Environment and Local Government fact-finding mission.
Mr Cuffe called for the facility to be safely shut down, adding that BNFL had lost all credibility in reassuring the public of its safety.
The cross-party group of TDs decided to view the controversial Sellafield nuclear plant over concerns about its safety.
The Oireachtas Committee met with UK nuclear regulators – the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate and British Environment Agency – as well as BNFL today as part of a two-day trip to the facility.
The TD said the new minor leak had to be viewed in light of the major leak of radioactive acid at the reprocessing unit at the Thorpe Plant in April, which went undetected for up to nine months.
Mr Cuffe said: “The report into the leak last April justified what we have been saying about Sellafield for a long time; that incompetent operational management at the site is a threat to human and environmental safety. This latest leak confirms that Sellafield is still a safety threat.”
The TD claimed over the last few years the Government had become complacent about the facility.
“But the view that the Sellafield problem has gone away is mistaken. That view misunderstands the nuclear industry. Even if all reprocessing contracts were completed by 2012 – which they will not be as a result of persistent technical problems with converting dangerous liquid waste into sold form – the site clean up will last 150 years after that date,” Mr Cuffe said.
“During this long clean-up period there will be discharges from Sellafield that will be different in quantity and composition from the current discharges created by reprocessing. The Irish Government need to ensure that these discharges are minimised.”
However, Environment Minister Dick Roche has stated he would be meeting UK Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Alan Johnson MP, in October and that he had already raised the matter of the leak with him.
Work at the Thorpe complex was halted when the major leak, which could have occurred as long ago as August 2004, was discovered in April.
A report published last month showed radiation from the Sellafield plant was contaminating fish off the Isle of Man, but it said the levels were not harmful.
