Public feeling in Ireland about the safety of the Sellafield nuclear processing plant runs so deep that any regular contact between its management and Irish representatives is welcome.
Yesterday a group of TDs accompanied by British parliamentary colleagues visited the plant, including the new Mixed Oxide Fuel (MOX) manufacturing facility at Sellafield, just weeks after it opened despite strong legal and political opposition by the Government.
They heard its chief executive say Irish fears about the plant are groundless, but were encouraged by his assurances that regular on-site monitoring of its safety by Irish experts could be acceptable.
It will now be up to the Government to pursue that proposal with the British authorities.
Last week the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland expressed worries about the safety of waste storage tanks at Sellafield and their vulnerability to attack from the air following heightened fears about international terrorism. Were that to happen the damage to Ireland and surrounding areas could be far worse than Chernobyl.
The British government has repeatedly dismissed such fears, saying military protection is fully adequate; but such denials cannot fully allay them. It makes sense to provide for on-site access by the RPII. Now that the MOX plant has opened, despite the protests of the Government and its stated determination to have the whole Sellafield plant closed, the same principle of regular on-site inspection might be a worthwhile objective, to reassure Irish public opinion.
The RPII regularly monitors nuclear pollution in the Irish Sea. While it has expressed concern about Sellafield it has reported there is little or no evidence of a dangerous level threatening the safety of those waters. Many other sources of radiation are more threatening to Irish public safety.
Such findings are reassuring, given the occasionally alarmist reports that circulate about Sellafield. But there remains a well-grounded fear in Ireland that the plant is inherently dangerous and vulnerable, increasingly outmoded and with a safety record compromised by repeated cover-ups about accidental releases of radiation.
It is not only Irish people north and south of the Border who harbour such fears, but many people who live near the plant and governments and peoples elsewhere in northern Europe. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden have taken an action under the OSPAR Convention, which requires all 15 of its member-states, the United Kingdom included, to take all possible steps to prevent and eliminate marine pollution.
Following the failure of the case taken by the Government at the United Nations International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea, where it sought a temporary injunction to stop the plant pending a full hearing of the case, further international legal courses are under investigation and should be actively pursued.