The Minister of State for Public Enterprise, Mr Joe Jacob, has accused Britain of breaking the spirit of the OSPAR convention on radioactive emissions, saying there was "no trust, no credibility" in Sellafield.
The extent of the Government's ongoing irritation with Britain over the nuclear reprocessing plant was clear yesterday as Mr Jacob, who has responsibility for nuclear safety, insisted he was "very disappointed" with bilateral relations over Sellafield and that diplomatic efforts at resolving the dispute had progressed "absolutely nowhere".
Mr Jacob was taking part in a debate on Sellafield at the Foreign Press Association in London with the British Minister for Industry and Energy, Mr Brian Wilson. The debate was dominated by the dis-agreement between Dublin and London over the safety and future of Sellafield, and fears that it is a potential terrorist target.
In a wide-ranging discussion about Irish concerns over Sellafield, Mr Jacob told journalists "there doesn't seem to be an honouring by the UK" of OSPAR, which aims to cut marine emissions to close to zero by 2020, and "the spirit of it has already been broken". Pointing to increased levels in the Irish Sea of technetium-99 - a radioactive by-product of spent nuclear fuel - Mr Jacob said Britain had failed to address these concerns. Fears over a terrorist attack or major accident at Sellafield after September 11th were increasing, he said.
Rejecting safety concerns over Sellafield as "patently absurd", Mr Wilson said it was "utterly fanciful" that Britain could simply close the plant.
He said he did not dispute there had been failings at Sellafield, but he was satisfied proper safety and security measures were in place and there was "no basis" to allegations that the plant's discharges were damaging or threatened to damage the human environment.
He also insisted that while he encouraged the exchange of information between Britain's nuclear industry regulator and the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, it would be "highly unusual" to formalise any relationship.
Outlining the potential for terrorist attacks, Dr Frank Barnaby, a nuclear physicist, suggested that international safeguards on transporting nuclear material such as the Mixed Oxide (MOX) fuel produced at Sellafield were difficult to enforce. If plutonium oxide from MOX fuel fell into terrorist hands, he said, even a "second-year chemistry undergraduate" could convert it into a crude nuclear device.