The Sellafield nuclear processing plant in Cumbria poses "no threat whatsoever" to Ireland and Britain said Margaret Tatcher's former press secretary.
Speaking on RTÉ radio this morning, Sir Bernard Ingham accused the Government of "hysteria and ignorance" over the dangers associated with Sellafield.
Mr Ingham said the hysteria had been "put about by the Green movement and picked up by ignorant politicians in Ireland and in Britain".
He said if a person ate seven Norwegian lobsters "you would ingest only the same amount of radioactivity from eating one Brazil nut - the same amount you could conceivably get from Sellafield".
"The world had survived the consequences of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons which put 100 times more radioactivity into the atmosphere then the Chernobyl nuclear disaster," Mr Ingham said.
He also noted "a panel of 700 scientists monitoring the consequences of Chernobyl for the UN have so far identified only 45 deaths due to it".
Asked about over 2,000 children in Belaruss who were diagnosed with thyroid cancer following the nuclear incident Mr Ingham said: "These could have been avoided by proper medical treatment".
Speaking on the same programme, Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs Mr Dermot Ahern told Mr Ingham the main threat from the plant was that posed by the possibility of a terrorist attack.
Mr Ahern referred to a report by a US expert who gave evidence to a House of Commons Committee where he said a terrorist attack on Sellafield would release 100 times the radioactivity that was released by Chernobyl.
Mr Ingham responded: "There won’t be an accident".