THE European Parliament's Petitions Committee yesterday referred back as inadequate to the European Commission its report on plans by Nirex, the state body responsible for nuclear waste, to assess the suitability of a site for a long term nuclear waste dump at Sellafield in Cumbria.
The Commission, responding to a petition by a British citizen, Mr Stephen Balogh, said the authorities were not in breach of EU procedures for development consent and had fulfilled requirements on information disclosure and for a public hearing.
MEPs asked the Commission to seek more information from the British authorities on the locations of 10 alternative sites that had been considered. The committee decided to leave the file open and to refer it to the Parliament's Environment Committee.
Ms Nuala Ahern (Green, Leinster) accused the British government of manipulating the planning process so as to deny its citizens a right to be heard. Ms Patricia McKenna (Green, Dublin) said the application for permission for a laboratory should be considered as an intrinsic part of an application for a dump. To separate the two issues was an abuse of the planning process.
