British Nuclear Fuels Limited has confirmed it plans to cease the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel at its controversial THORP plant in Sellafield in 2010.
However, the company has left the way open for future contracts, which might extend beyond that date and so keep the plant open.
While the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, expressed "cautious optimism" about the announcement, he immediately sought clarification from the British government on the precise status of THORP.
In a letter to his British counterpart, he said he reaffirmed Irish Government policy on Sellafield and also addressed concerns about discharges of waste from the site into the Irish sea.
THORP is half-way through its order book, which should run out by around 2010. The British government has ruled that the plant may not take on any new contracts without government approval.
Responding to a story in today's Guardianand The Irish Times, BNFL said the 2010 date for completion of its current THORP business was "not new" and had been in the public domain in a variety of documents.
The director of the Sellafield site, Mr Brian Watston, told the Guardianthe company was changing from production into a nuclear waste disposal company.
He said: "There is £30 billion worth of clean-up work here. We are switching from reprocessing to clean-up. We hope that will be seen in a more positive light."
Mr Watson added: "It would greatly help our situation if we had some decisions from the government about what to do with all this."
Some 75 tonnes of plutonium and 3,336 tonnes of uranium recovered through reprocessing at Sellafield is stored on the Cumbria site.
The plant, which opened nine years ago at a cost of €2,571 million, had originally promised to produce an unlimited supply of electricity.
In a statement issued in response to media inquiries today, BNFL said: "THORP has an order book which currently extends to 2010. Although the focus of the Sellafield site is shifting from commercial reprocessing to clean-up and managing the historic legacy, BNFL has made it clear that all existing reprocessing contracts will be honoured.
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"Any new business for THORP will depend upon the wishes of our customers [and] the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, which will assume ownership of the site in 2005 and ultimately the sanction of government."
It added: "The date of 2010 for the completion of current business is not new and has been in the public domain in a variety of documents."
Asked to clarify whether this meant the plant would definitely close in 2010, a spokesman for BNFL told ireland.com: "That's an unknown quantity." He referred to the point in the statement that any new business for THORP would depend on the wishes of BNFL customers and on what happens when the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority comes into being.
"It's not really a question anyone can answer at this point," he said. However, asked whether this meant BNFL would be willing to honour new contracts, which might extend beyond 2010, he said: "That's exactly as you've described there. That will be a long way into the future. It's as clear as we can be at this time."
Nevertheless, the announcement has been welcomed by political parties from all sides.
The Green Party said the plant had difficulties from the start when BNFL lied over data on nuclear material that was being sent to Japan.
Green Party TD Mr Ciarán Cuffe said: "We are pleased at the proposal to close this white elephant that has cost the British taxpayer billions. We hope that this marks the beginning of the end for Sellafield and for technology that is dated, dangerous and past its sell-by date."
Fine Gael's environment spokesman, Mr Bernard Allen, called on the Irish Government to seek clarification from the British government on what he said were "conflicting reports" on the THORP closure.
"During a recent visit to Sellafield by a Fine Gael delegation . . . facts were uncovered proving that radioactive discharges into the Irish Sea, rather than reducing, will increase substantially over the next 20 years," he said.
Mr Allen said the new facts would have serious consequences for the marine environment, the food chain and therefore the health of the Irish people.
Anti-Sellafield campaigners in Northern Ireland also welcomed the news. SDLP MP Eddie McGrady said it represented a major step towards the decommissioning of the Sellafield plant.
He said for BNFL and the British government to write off the £1.8 billion THORP works was "a total admission that the arguments used against the commissioning and opening of the plant on health, environmental and economic grounds were right and justified all along".