Sellafield lacks plan if attacked - MEP Doyle

The Irish and British governments have been condemned for failing to put in place an effective plan to protect people in the event of a terrorist attack or accident at BNFL's nuclear power plant at Sellafield.

Fine Gael MEP Mrs Avril Doyle, a co-founder of a European Parliament Working Group on Nuclear Safety, accused both governments of displaying a lack of transparency, planning and consultation in connection with the nuclear plant and said there was no contingency plan in place in the event of an attack or accident.

The MEP visits Louth later today, in order to speak with colleagues on this question in advance of the public meeting with Mr John Clarke, Head of Environment, Health, Safety and Quality at Sellafield and representative of BNFL, that will take place tomorrow.

"Since September 11th, it has become increasingly difficult to extract information on Sellafield from the British authorities. If Ireland is to act 'as a critical friend rather than a participant in an auction of indignation', as was hoped by the British Energy Minister last year, the two governments need to sit down and conduct an honest and transparent dialogue," Mrs Doyle said this morning.

"Instead of opening channels of communication and gaining access to information about Sellafield, as our European counterparts have done with Eastern European plants, this Government has no contingency plan other than distributing iodine tablets (long since out-of-date) in case of an emergency", she said.

"What we need," she said, "is a British-Irish Nuclear Safety Forum which would allow regular frank exchanges of information and concerns," Mrs Doyle said.