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The Green Party welcomed today's news that Carlisle Crown Court has
fined the British Nuclear Group €743,000 for leaks at its troubled
Sellafield plant.
Green Party Environment spokesperson Ciarán CuffeTD said: "It is
unacceptable that a pipe had been leaking radioactive waste for
eight months at Sellafield. It is important that the operators of
Sellafield, now a private company, are sent a very strong message by
the courts that such standards are completely unacceptable.
"It is important that British Prime Minister Tony Blair takes note
of Mr Justice Openshaw's view that the British Nuclear Group
Sellafield 'did not have a good safety record.' I again call on the
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche to visit the troubled
Sellafield complex and view first hand the dangers of nuclear power.
"This should be a stark reminder to the UK of the danger of
proceeding with a new programme of nuclear power stations. We in
Ireland have no confidence in our neighbour's current generation of
reactors.
"Thankfully there were no emissions into the atmosphere on this
occasion but what is deeply worrying is that this leak existed over
such a long period of time before being noticed.
"If the operators of Sellafield are going to convince the Irish
people that they can manage the facility in a safe way, monitoring
and early-warning processes need to be of the highest standards.
Unfortunately, such processes seem to have been absent in April 2005
and we have little reason to believe that they are any better today.
"I think those in Ireland who have recently begun to argue in favour
of nuclear power as the answer to our energy crisis should pay
attention to the facts of this case and compare it to the spin of
the international pro-nuclear lobby which has been revitalised by
the challenges of climate change and peak oil."
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