Sellafield fears - Timebomb on our doorstep

Any and every effort by officials attached to British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) to allay fears here about Sellafield are doomed to futility.

So was the latest one yesterday in which senior BNFL officials met with worried councillors in Louth to try to reassure them about the safety of the site.

Their avowal that Sellafield is robust enough to withstand a terrorist attack has to be taken with more than a considerable degree of scepticism. By their own admission they are ignorant about the extent of one particularly serious hazard on their own doorstep.

As highlighted in RTÉ’s Prime Time, European Commission inspectors uncovered a massive pond containing 1.3 tonnes of plutonium, as well as thousands of gallons of decaying, contaminated sludge.

It is hardly unexpected that BNFL’s assurances about potential terrorist attacks are viewed with an exceptionally jaundiced eye, given they have absolutely no idea of the extent of plutonium present in that pond.

Because the company is unable to produce documentary evidence quantifying the amount of plutonium in the poisoned pond, British nuclear consultant John Large could well be correct in believing it could contain up to five tonnes of plutonium.

Whether his estimate, or the smaller one from the European inspectors is accurate, either one represents an unacceptable potential threat.

Environment Minister Martin Cullen’s response that the EU inspectors’ report was “very worrying” was an understatement to say the least. But he was right in averring Sellafield could no longer be allowed to operate under a veil of secrecy. The Government will have to be more voluble and insistent in demanding that Irish nuclear inspectors visit the Sellafield site.