AN EXPERT group of Irish and British scientists should be set up to monitor radioactive pollution bin shared seas, according to a committee of the British Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body.
In, its report, the committee says it is "not satisfied the system for incident reporting (at Sellafield) works as well as it should". It says there should be a bilateral agreement between Britain and Ireland on nuclear incidents safety and radiation protection.
The report also recommends that the two governments and British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) consider a scheme to report the movement of ships carrying nuclear waste in the Irish Sea.
Committee chairman Sir Giles Shaw MP told yesterday's meeting in Dublin that reports from the British authorities and the industry itself had a credibility problem. The committee had found "certain improvements, better control and lower residues dis-charging into the sea" from the Sellafield plant, but there was "some real anxiety" about the planned Nirex, rock laboratory on the Sellafield site.
The lab will be a research facility to test the suitability of the geology on the site. If it were allowed to go ahead any depository for nuclear waste would have to go through a planning public inquiry procedure, the MP said.
Senator Joe Lee criticised BNFL for its "mandarin disdain for the concerns of lesser mortals". He quoted a letter from Nirex's chief executive to Sir Giles referring to the "media's excitement about a leaked Nirex internal memo" in January. This indicated that the geology of West Cumbria might not be stable enough for a depository.
Mr Lee said there was "unease about the mind set behind all of this", and the words used indicated a culture of secrecy and furtiveness.
Progressive Democrat TD Mr Des O'Malley said there was the "potential for an almost unspeakable catastrophe" in Sellafield and the Thorp reprocessing plant.
The committee recommended that the Irish Sea Co-ordination Commission and the Irish Sea Forum should be promoted, and arrangements for dealing with nu.
On the question of Beaufort's Dyke, the munitions dump off the north coast, the committee drew "a firm conclusion that there should be no real anxiety about the dump", Sir Giles said.
On the question of salvaging German U-boats, the committee said it would be "consistent with the spirit of co-operation already displayed in work on Beaufort's Dyke if the British government were to give guarantees to the Irish Government over the safety of any salvage operation for submarines in the Irish Sea".
