Sellafield development seen as step towards dumping N waste

THE development of an underground rock laboratory at Sellafield is seen by the Government as a first step towards dumping "very highly radioactive and toxic waste" in a way that could threaten the health and safety of the Irish public.

Mr Emmet Stagg, Minister of State at the Department of Energy, will tell a planning inquiry in Cumbria on Friday that further expansion of Sellafield's nuclear facilities would represent "an inexorable and increasing threat" to Ireland's environment as well as fishing, agriculture and tourism.

NIREX, a British state owned company, has said that no nuclear waste would be placed in its "rock characterisation facility", adding that it is designed to test geological and hydrogeological conditions for a potential underground rock repository for low and intermediate level radioactive waste.

But Mr Stagg will say he believes that any decision to proceed with this exploratory project "is tantamount to a commitment to build a repository there". He will also object to the limited scope of the planning inquiry, which has no remit to examine the wider issues involved.

In an unprecedented public intervention by an Irish Minister in the British planning process, Mr Stagg's submission accuses NIREX of selecting the Sellafield site for its project on grounds of cost and convenience without paying sufficient attention to safety considerations.

The Minister believes that the case being made by NIREX for Sellafield as an underground storage site is also based "on the assumption that the local community in Cumbria might be more receptive to such an installation in view of their economic dependence" on the nuclear industry.

"The refusal of NIREX to release full information on alternative sites and to address alternative options and processes has militated against an effective assessment of potential environmental impact, as it is impossible to understand the environmental basis on which the choice of location has been made".

Although the idea of storing radioactive waste in rock caverns seemed plausible, unstable geological and ground water conditions made such an environment "mobile, vulnerable and transient", given that the necessary time frame for containing "this deadly waste" could exceed 10,000 years.

Mr Stagg's submission takes issue with the regulatory principle followed by NIREX that "no further reductions in risk will be sought where, in respect of a particular option at a specific site, the estimated risks to the public are below target", saying this may be good enough for Britain.

But this was "simply not acceptable when the public in Ireland is included, as inevitably it is by virtue of the proximity of the Sellafield site to Ireland", where only the Irish Government would determine what standards of public health and safety were acceptable.