Groups up Sellafield surveillance

Radiation watchdogs are increasing surveillance on Sellafield and other nuclear stations.

Radiation watchdogs are increasing surveillance on Sellafield and other nuclear stations.

A UK company has won a €400,000 contract to upgrade existing monitoring stations on the east and south-east coast of Ireland.

Data from the stations about nuclear installations abroad will be beamed to a central response unit. Berthold Technologies Ltd, which beat off competition from seven other firms, will also build seven extra stations.

The Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII), which monitors radiation levels across the country, issued tenders for the project last year.

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Last month, Minister for Environment Dick Roche called on the British government to abandon plans to re-open the Thorp nuclear plant in Cumbria. The facility has been closed since a leak in April 2005.

The RPII paid an inspection visit to the Wylfa nuclear power plant in north Wales in October 2006. It visited Sellafield in September 2004.