Sellafield as risky to Irish as it is to Cumbrians

HEALTH and radiation surveys have pointed to the Sellafield nuclear processing plant in Cumbria as being almost as much a hazard for people on Ireland's east coast as it is to those living and working near the British plant.

Liquid waste discharged from the plant owned by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) ends up in the Irish Sea and nuclear waste is transported across the sea. A serious accident at Sellafield could shower Ireland with radioactive fallout.

In 1997, the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland announced that reports monitoring fallout over Ireland from a 1957 accident at Sellafield were never included in the final data recording the fallout pattern from a nuclear fire. According to Eddie McGrady, SDLP MP for South Down, a full fallout survey was never completed.