IRISH people's interest in a proposed radioactive waste facility near the Irish Sea was acknowledged in the British Government's response to the Nirex planning application.
The letter, written on behalf of Environment secretary Mr John Gummer, said he agreed with the inquiry inspector's recommendation in refusing the appeal. Nirex remained, the letter said "unduly optimistic about its model development and validation programme," and warns that there is "a serious risk of basing successive predictions on inadequately refined models, in turn producing output of insufficient reliability."
Nirex appealed the decision on the original planning application, which was refused by Cumbria County Council in December 1994.
In a separate statement, Mr Gummer said the proposal warranted refusal on the sole issues of the facility's poor design, layout, access and impact on the environment.
"I remain concerned about the scientific uncertainties and technical deficiencies in the proposals," he said.
He agreed with the inspector's conclusions about the concerns of the Irish Government and other parties. "The people of Ireland have a legitimate interest in any proposal for a repository for radioactive waste near the Irish Sea coast.
"He is acutely aware of the Government's obligations to other states which are set out in various international obligations in respect of the sea and the environment more generally."
The company was "too optimistic about the situation it has reached ... He concludes that your company does not understand the regional, hydrogeological system well enough and it is not planning to give the remainder of its investigatory, programme sufficient scope to remedy the discrepancy ..."
"Nirex should not be allowed to proceed with the RCF (Rock Characterisation Facility) in its current state of inadequate knowledge, for that would cause needless damage to the PRZ (potential repository zone)."
The site had not been selected in "an objective and methodical manner" and the company did not appear "to have fully appreciated the limitations of its understanding of the site (i.e., groundwater conditions in and around the site and the extent and variability of faulting in the rock)."