The author of a report warning of the danger of storing nuclear waste at Sellafield will address the Dail tonight, according to the Minister of State for Public Enterprise, Mr Joe Jacob.
Mr Jacob told RTE that he had not yet seen the report by Dr Gordon Thompson, of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies in Massachusetts, who presented it to a press conference at the House of Commons in London yesterday. However, he said he looked forward to Dr Thompson's presentation tonight.
Mr Jacob pointed out that the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland had already warned that there was a great danger of an accident arising from the radioactive liquid stored by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) in 21 tanks at Sellafield. He said the Government wanted the process of vitrification of the liquid - turning it into solid form - expedited.
Following the publication of Dr Thompson's report, Fine Gael has accused the Government of deliberately reneging on its commitment to support the legal case against BNFL being taken by a group of Co Louth residents, despite having supported a motion on the issue in the Dail.
Mr Ivan Yates said yesterday: "Eight months later, not a penny has been paid by the Government in support of this case. New preconditions have been sought by the Government to prevent the payment of any monies towards research expenses."
Mr Jacob said yesterday on RTE that he wanted to reach an agreement with the residents which would allow for the release of the money allocated for assistance with the case.
The Minister of State was responding to Mr James McGuill, the solicitor representing the Louth Residents' Group.
Ms Nuala Ahern, the Green Party MEP, pointed out that the EU Committee for Energy, Research and Technology was discussing plutonium processing in Brussels this week. "The serious question of reprocessing at The Hague and Sellafield and associated nuclear risks is crucial in view of documents circulated by the UK Atomic Energy Authority concerning dangerous leaks in the cooling system of the high-level waste tanks at Sellafield", she said.
The Democratic Left spokesman on the environment, Mr Eamon Gilmore TD, described the report of Dr Thompson as "frightening" and accused the Government of allowing the issue to slip down the political agenda.
Meanwhile, British Nuclear Fuels has reacted by summarily dismissing the report, describing it as "scaremongering". A spokesman said: "What the IRSS study lacks in science it makes up for in meaningless comparisons between the US and UK civil nuclear installations' regulatory and risk-assessment procedures."
He criticised the report for "meandering through a host of unrelated issues before arriving at its inevitable conclusion: the nuclear reprocessing industry in the UK must stop".