BRITISH Nuclear Fuels said yesterday an investigation into the contamination of six workers at Sellafield was "going well" and insisted that all the necessary procedures had been followed.
A BNFL spokeswoman said there was no need for the European Commission or any other body to investigate the incident, which occurred at 5 a.m. on Monday. "We are governed by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. There are set procedures which legally have to be obeyed and we have done it," she said.
The six employees, who were wearing routine respirators but not fully protective clothing, were working in part of the Magnox plant dismantling a redundant reprocessor, which separates waste products from spent nuclear fuels, when the leak was detected.
They were found to have suffered "minor personal contamination". After tests, BNFL confirmed no radioactivity had escaped into the atmosphere.
However, Mr Jim Fitzsimons, the Leinster MEP and member of the European Parliament's Environment Committee, urged the European Commission to investigate the leak and ensure that BNFL had disclosed all the relevant facts.
"The European Commission has been slow in the past to investigate these matters because it did not wish to whip up more Eurosceptic feelings in certain quarters in Britain. However, the European Commission and the British government must now face up to the magnitude of feeling and distrust on this issue prevalent in Ireland."
Mr Fitzsimons pointed out that BNFL only confirmed details of the incident after an internal memo from the British Department of the Environment had been disclosed.
A BNFL spokeswoman said a full investigation was being carried out to ensure that "all the learning points from this event are determined and fully implemented".
The six workers completed their "whole body monitoring" programme yesterday which confirmed that they had not suffered an "abnormal dosage", but further tests will be carried out.