An "early warning agreement" between the Irish and British governments is being questioned after it emerged today the extent of a leak at Sellafield last year was not reported by British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL).
Last April, it emerged there was a serious leak at the Thorp reprocessing facility in which 83,000 litres of radioactive material containing 20 tonnes of uranium and plutonium leaked into a containment tank. The leak began last July but was only recognised in April.
Although the Irish authorities were informed within days - in accordance with a co-operation agreement know as the Package of Measures- they were not informed of the seriousness of the leak until a month later.
The Package of Measures,signed last December, committed the UK's Nuclear Installation Inspectorate (NII) to communicate such incidents to the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) through a new "priority pathway of communication".
However, Sinn Féin TD Arthur Morgan believes the agreement must be questioned because BNFL did not inform the NII. A report by the inspectorate yesterday was scathing in its criticism of monitoring at the plant, accusing BNFL of "gross operational complacency".
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche was quoted in today's Irish Timesaccusing the company of "gross incompetence at best, and concealment of the facts at worst".
Mr Morgan told ireland.comthat BNFL had "sleepwalked" their way through the problem after the NII found staff at the plant assumed the extent of the leak was so great that there must have been an error in calculations.
Mr Morgan called on Mr Roche to convene a round-table conference of all objectors to Sellafield to draw up a comprehensive campaign plan.
Labour’s Emmet Stagg said the Minister also has questions to answer. "Either Minister Roche new about it and failed to let the Irish people know, or else the agreement announced with great fanfare by Minister Roche last December on the exchange of information between the British and Irish governments on nuclear matters has proved to be totally worthless," he said.