Cullen demands access to inspect Sellafield

ENVIRONMENT Minister Martin Cullen has demanded Britain allows a first-hand inspection of an aging storage facility at the Sellafield nuclear plant feared to be at risk of leaking radioactive material.

Mr Cullen said he wanted full access to the site for senior department officials and scientists from the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland in what he described as a very frank exchange of views with Britain’s Energy Secretary Brian Wilson, yesterday.

He repeated the Irish Government’s demand for an immediate end to the dumping of radioactive waste from Sellafield into the Irish Sea and he rejected British arguments dumping at sea was safer than storing waste on land.