Sellafield accident is 'unthinkable'

THE Irish people could cease to exist if there was a major accident at Sellafield, an international tribunal hearing Ireland's case against the British Government was warned yesterday.

The Government was in fact left with no way of evaluating the risks to the Irish people or to the environment from the MOX nuclear plant at Sellafield because of Britain's refusal to give them relevant information, Environment Minister Martin Cullen said.

Instead, they have to rely on the word of the state-owned company that manages the plant, British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, about what is happening at the plant just across the Irish Sea in Cumbria, he told the tribunal in The Hague.