Sir, - The recent British Nuclear Safety Inspectorate Report on activities at Sellafield has raised the issue of the safety of that plant to its highest level so far. Now for the first time we see the British Government beginning to take a serious interest in the Sellafield situation.
We are also seeing the Irish Government perking up a little on this issue. God knows this would not be hard, given their almost complete inactivity on the matter to date, despite strong promises to use all their efforts to bring about the closure of Sellafield. The fact is that members of the present Irish Government did not and still do not believe that the closure of Sellafield is possible. I believe that it is not only possible but also inevitable. It is not a question of whether Sellafield will close its reprocessing activities but when it will do so. Apart from the ethical considerations, nuclear reprocessing is not economically viable in the long term.
What we need now is creative thinking and support for the BNFL management and the British Authorities in examining a future role for Sellafield in the care of existing nuclear waste material. Now is the time for Sellafield itself to be reprocessed!
Many of the installations at Sellafield will take many years to decommission and this will provide work for most of the workforce for a long time to come. When we take this into account, the argument that the British will never close Sellafield because of the size of its workforce loses its force.
It is also worth noting that many members of the present British cabinet including the prime minister are not strongly pro-nuclear and would be glad to finally find a way to solve the Sellafield problem. Let us now support them in doing so. - Yours, etc.,
Neil P. McCann, Castlebellingham, Co Louth.