British prime minister Tony Blair's announcement that Britain needs to rejuvenate its nuclear industry could damage Ireland's development of renewable energy sources, the Green Party said today.
The Greens were joined by Opposition parties and the Government in condemning Mr Blair's unexpected comments as a threat to Ireland's safety.
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche today said the Government would fight nuclear expansion "tooth-and-nail". Ten generations would live with the "horrific consequences", he added.
Green Party energy spokesman Eamon Ryan said it would be more difficult to sell surplus wind power to the UK and develop the trans-European offshore grid considered necessary to address the problem of wind energy intermittence.
"With the increasing interconnection between our energy markets, what happens in Britain has a real effect on our energy policy here," said Mr Ryan.
He said the Government should make a formal submission to Britain about its nuclear expansion plans while continuing to pursue legal action over the Sellafield plant in Cumbria.
Mr Blair yesterday surprised observers when he said the nuclear issue was back on the agenda with "a vengeance". He warned Britain would soon be heavily dependent on imported energy if it did not act quickly.
Today he told the Commons that ruling out replacing of the current generation of nuclear power stations would be "a collective dereliction of duty".
Labour's spokesman on nuclear safety Emmet Stagg said the consequences of Britain entering "a new nuclear age ... could be catastrophic" for Ireland.
He warned harmful discharges into the Irish Sea would continue, while there would be an "ever-present threat of a nuclear explosion or a major terrorist attack on one of the British plants". Fine Gael's Fergus O'Dowd called for an immediate Dáil debate. He said Sellafield, Britain's only nuclear waste reprocessing plant, would receive greater quantities of waste and more generation plants could be built along Britain's Irish sea coast.
"Wylfa in Anglesey will, almost certainly, be extended under Blair's expansion. I am concerned that, not only Wylfa, but many of the new stations may be situated just off the Irish coast across the west of the UK," Mr O'Dowd said.