A report of a "massive problem" with the storage of nuclear waste at Sellafield is to be investigated by the Department of Public Enterprise and the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII).
The investigation was ordered last night by the Minister of State for Energy, Mr Joe Jacob, following a Channel 4 News report that the storage of intermediate level radioactive waste at Sellafield posed a "significant threat" to the public.
The report, which quoted from a Nuclear Safety Inspectorate report obtained by Channel 4 News and the New Scientist, said such waste could remain "highly radioactive" for thousands of years.
It added that most of Britain's intermediate level nuclear waste was stored at Sellafied, but only 15 per cent of the waste there had been treated for long-term storage.
The rest was stored in drums being kept in "severely dilapidated crates" or storage tanks which were in a 1950s building. Mr Jacob said he would follow up the results of the investigation he has ordered with his British counterparts.