An accident at Sellafield nuclear station would contaminate Ireland's environment but the country would not suffer deaths and devastation on the scale of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, it was claimed tonight.
Ireland's top nuclear expert reassured members of a Dail parliament committee that the island would not be "wiped out" if dangerous radioactive material escaped from the Cumbrian plant.
TDs said they feared a "doomsday scenario" in the event of explosions or a terrorist attack on Sellafield, which the Irish Government wants to be shut down.
But Dr Ann McGarry, chief of the Radiological Protection Institute, told the Environment Committee in Dublin: "It's certainly not the case that we would have the devastation that's within the 30km exclusion zone around Chernobyl.
"Even if there was a worst-case scenario, there is no doubt that our environment would become contaminated and that it would have very serious economic consequences for us.
"We would certainly suffer into the longer term but you would not have the kind of immediate devastation and deaths in the aftermath of a nuclear accident (like Chernobyl).
"It doesn't seem to us to be credible that the whole of Ireland would be wiped out." Green TD Ciaran Cuffe predicted a possible "nightmare scenario" if a large aircraft crashed into huge tanks containing radioactive material.
Dr David Pollard, head of radiological monitoring and measurements at RPI, said: "The tanks themselves are unlikely to blow up unless there was a bomb."
Sinn Fein member Arthur Morgan said that there could be catastrophic consequences if Cesium-137 waste was released into the atmosphere and carried across Ireland by prevailing winds.
Earlier, Labour TD Emmet Stagg said: "We have been told by scientists that a doomsday-type of situation could arise which would allow a cloud of contaminated material to cross Ireland.
"The area that it would cross would be severely contaminated and that would affect the agriculture in that area immediately and our tourism drastically. "It would have long term health affects for many."
Drogheda TD Fergus O'Dowd called on the Government to use more influence at international level with the Atomic Energy Agency.
Last month the Minister for Environment Dick Roche called on the British Government to shut down the Sellafield nuclear station.