'Shut Sellafield' campaigners in postcards blitz

More than a million postcards were being delivered to Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Prince of Wales today as part of an Irish bid to have the Sellafield nuclear installation closed down.

More than a million postcards were being delivered to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Prince of Wales today as part of an Irish bid to have the Sellafield nuclear installation closed down.

People throughout the country posted the cards after weeks of campaigning backed by celebrities such as soccer international Roy Keane and pop stars Ronan Keating and Samantha Mumba.

The 1.3 million postcards were set to reach their final destinations in London today on the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster.

The Shut Sellafield campaign, spearheaded by Ali Hewson, wife of U2 star Bono, urged people to express fears that the Cumbrian power and reprocessing plant threatened the Irish environment and offered a target for terrorists.

The cards were being delivered to 10 Downing Street and St James’s Palace.

Others were heading for Norman Askew, head of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd which operates Sellafield.

Hewson was delighted with the response, which came despite celebrity-led television commercials being cancelled under a law which bans political advertising.

She said: ‘‘I am very proud to be Irish. The response from the Irish nation to the Shut Sellafield campaign has been overwhelming.

‘‘Over 1.3 million people in this country have expressed their desire to close the reprocessing plant, which is a very strong message to the British government.’’

The postcards being sent to Mr Blair show an eye and carry the message: ‘‘Tony, look me in the eye and tell me I am safe’’.

The card sent to the Prince at St James’s Palace shows an image of Ireland suffering the fallout of a nuclear disaster at Sellafield.

A third shows human lips calling on Mr Askew to ‘‘tell us the truth’’.

Sellafield has been a contentious issue between Dublin and Westminster for years.

The commissioning of a new mixed oxide (MOX) reprocessing facility at the end of last year provoked outrage.

Ireland has already taken two legal actions against Sellafield. The first was under the Ospar Convention on nuclear emissions and the second was to the Hamburg-based United Nations International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea.

Although Ireland failed to win an injunction banning the opening of the MOX plant, it claimed a partial victory after the Hamburg panel ordered Britain not to exacerbate Irish fears.