Greenpeace has criticised yesterday's announcement by British Nuclear Fuels that it is shedding a further 500 jobs at the nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield in Cumbria, saying the plant poses "a significant threat" to the Irish coastline.
The reduction in staffing levels at the plant, which is part of a ongoing programme, were described by BNFL as a response to a reduction in costs by Sellafield's customers. However, Dr Helen Wallace, a scientist and anti-nuclear campaigner for Greenpeace, insisted reprocessing nuclear waste at Sellafield should end immediately. Yesterday's job cuts were "a clear sign that it [reprocessing] has no future.
"It is continuing in spite of the wishes of some of its customers, notably the German government, which does not want plutonium. Germany has not cancelled its contract with Sellafield but its policy is not to use nuclear power and it wants to get out of it," she said.
Dr Wallace continued: "There is a significant threat to Ireland from Sellafield. It is not directed at clearing up waste but making more, and new jobs should be created in clearing up the waste it creates."
The 500 job cuts - 220 staff have already volunteered to take early retirement or voluntary redundancy - will take place across a range of posts at Sellafield and BNFL has not ruled out the prospect that some jobs will be cut in the areas of safety and manning at the plant.
A spokesman for British Nuclear Fuels said the job cuts would not be made unless it was safe to do so and safety and operational levels could be maintained. "We won't be making job cuts that impact on safety and operating standards. They will be maintained. But we will undoubtedly look at all our systems and ask `do we need all these people in these jobs?' The bottom line here is can we do this safely or not? We believe we can," he said.
Since 1994, 1,500 jobs have been cut at Sellafield. British Nuclear Fuels currently employs 7,000 at the plant and is aiming to reduce that figure to around 6,000 by 2001 as part of a 25 per cent reduction across the entire company over the next two years.
Ms Patricia McKenna, the Green MEP for Dublin, who has campaigned for Sellafield's closure, was angry at the announcement of more job cuts. She insisted that in the light of Sellafield's poor record on safety, BNFL should be increasing the number of jobs in health and safety instead of contemplating a reduction in staff levels.
Responding to BNFL's insistence that the jobs cuts were part of a programme of cost savings, Ms McKenna said BNFL should cut its PR budget following recent criticism that it had produced misleading advertisements.