BRITISH government scientists have warned that the proposed first underground nuclear waste dump at Sellafield could leak radioactivity into Cumbria and the Irish Sea.
The British Environment Secretary, Mr John Gummer, was expected to authorise the work for the £1.8 billion dump, planned by Nirex, later this month. Anti nuclear campaigners now hope the new scientific findings - in two reports by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution - will persuade him to reconsider.
In Britain, a spokeswoman for Friends of the Earth said: "This evidence proves what we have been saying all along. This dump is dangerous and should be stopped now. It would be a disaster for the environment if it is built."
The Minister of State for Energy, Mr Emmet Stagg, said he would seek copies of the reports this morning before considering action at government and EU levels. "But it seems that their authorities are taking the same view as us, that this site is simply not suitable. We now expect Mr Gummer to decide accordingly."
A spokesman for Britain's Department of the Environment admitted officials had not yet studied the reports, which question the viability of the dump and predict radioactivity could return to the Earth's surface through groundwater.
"Of course, we will examine any new evidence that has come to light on this issue. There has been a public inquiry and some of these arguments were aired then. A decision is expected as soon as possible," he said.
The reports, which were only released after Friends of the Earth legally challenged an order restricting their publication, dismiss Nirex's claims based on computer models which show that any radioactivity leaking into the Irish Sea through ground water would be diluted.
Nirex used a "flat earth model" to justify its claims, but the British government scientists argue this approach is "over simplified and idealised" because the Earth is not flat. Dr Shaun Salmon, the senior hydrologist at Aspinwalls, the environment consultancy, said: "The world is not flat. You cannot model what happens in a three dimensional world in two dimensions."
But a Nirex spokeswoman insisted the reports' findings were not new and all the arguments had been discussed at the public inquiry. "Nirex used both two dimensional and three dimensional modelling."
The company acknowledges discharges could occur on land and at sea some time in the future, but not for 25,000 years. "The radioactivity of these discharges would be very small, 100 times lower that natural radiation."
The Green MEP, Ms Patricia McKenna, accused Nirex of suppressing the documents. The agency had "gone to great lengths to stop any criticism of its plans from entering the public arena". The scientific arguments used by Nirex were "wearing thin" and the company did not enjoy substantial support from the scientific community.
Ms McKenna called on the Government to start preparing a legal case against the dump, and suggested legal action at EU level might be necessary to force the European Commission to investigate the formal complaint already made to it by the Government.
Dr Mary Grehan, the Dundalk GP who is giving evidence in support of a legal challenge by local campaigners, called on the Government to take meaningful action after what she claimed were 10 years of empty promises.
She said the reports' contents were not unexpected. I think we'll find that this whole story is going to be a lot more horrendous even than the leaked details we've got so far.