The Green Party has accused the Government of back-pedalling on the issue of radioactive discharges from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant at this week's OSPAR Commission meeting in Hull.
The Green Party TD, Mr John Gormley, said the Government's submission to the OSPAR meeting fell short of a demand for the halting of nuclear reprocessing at Sellafield.
The submission called for a cessation of discharges of technetium99, a radioactive substance which can be detected in increasing quantities in the Irish Sea. Last year, at a meeting of OSPAR member-states, Britain agreed to reduce radioactive emissions into the sea to near zero by 2020. However, near zero was not defined in the agreement.
Britain's expected announcement at OSPAR this week of a reduction or even a cessation of technetium-99 discharges was significant, but Sellafield still discharged more than 40 other radioactive substances, Mr Gormley said.