The Green Party has called on the Government to challenge an expected Swedish government decision allowing Sellafield nuclear plant to supply fuel to Sweden.
According to the Green Party spokesperson on nuclear affairs, Mr Trevor Sargent TD, new orders from a Swedish plant would speed up the opening of a Sellafield mixed-oxide (MOX) plant which would otherwise remain closed.
Mr Sargent claimed in a statement yesterday the decision "will also give encouragement to BNFL to continue reprocessing longer than it would otherwise have done and to continue to discharge liquid radioactive waste into the Irish Sea. "This is a bad move for Ireland and is a slap in the face and a betrayal to all of Sweden's neighbours who signed the OSPAR clean seas agreement."
The British government has said the MOX plant would be abandoned if contracts for supply of the fuel were not secured by early 2001. Safety of storage of radioactive liquid waste at Sellafield was criticised recently in a report by the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland.