Renewed calls have been made for the closure of the Sellafield nuclear fuel plant after a fire in its waste-reprocessing unit on Christmas Eve.
British Nuclear Fuels Ltd said yesterday no radioactivity was released during the fire and no one was injured.
But the Green Party TD, Mr Trevor Sargent, said the incident showed the plant was operating "under stress" and he called for its immediate closure.
"How serious must an accident be before Bertie Ahern squares up to Tony Blair on this issue?" Mr Sargent asked.
A spokesman for BNFL said initial investigations suggested the fire was started by sparks from a grinding machine used to cut up contaminated waste.
He said the fire was quickly controlled and fully extinguished within an hour by the Sellafield site fire brigade. Two appliances from the Cumbria fire service also attended the site as back-up.
Management at the plant is investigating the incident, and the Nuclear Installation Inspectorate (NII) has been informed.
The spokesman stressed that the vitrification unit, in which the fire started, was isolated from other reprocessing plants, and that there was no danger of the fire spreading.
