As international concern about Sellafield mounts, Denmark's Environment Minister arrives in Dublin today to brief the Government on how he thinks the UK can be forced to act.
Denmark, in response to safety lapses and falsification of records at Sellafield nuclear reprocessing facility, wants to make the British government indicate how radioactive discharges from its operations are to be reduced to "next to zero".
The Danish minister, Mr Svend Auken, is to deploy an international agreement on marine pollution, known as the OSPAR Convention, to force the hand of the Blair government.
The matter is due to come to a head in late June when parties to the agreement, including the Republic and the UK, meet in Copenhagen. Mr Auken will brief the Government on his tactics, which have the backing of an alliance of Nordic countries.
Mr Auken has told the Danish parliament that he will "put down `a decision' against reprocessing discharges" at the June meeting, citing an agreement signed in Sintra, Portugal, in 1998. The `decision' mechanism ensures that any adopted agreement is legally binding in the 15 signatory countries.
The minister has written to his counterpart in Britain, Mr Michael Meacher, signalling his intent. The recently issued reports from the UK Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) "reinforce my concern", he says in the letter.
"This move by Denmark will turn up the heat on Sellafield," said Greenpeace senior scientist Dr Helen Wallace. It would prevent any further evasiveness on the part of the British government on how it intended meeting the terms of the Sintra agreement, she added. The UK had proposed "a plan on how it would produce a plan", with no concrete action and only a commitment to consultation. "Basically, this is a delaying tactic," claimed Dr Wallace. "Consultation is not enough. This Danish move means they cannot get away with evasiveness any more."
Backed by a position reiterated by Nordic countries last month, Mr Auken has asked the Danish Environmental Protection Agency to help draw up proposals for a `decision' at the Copenhagen meeting. It was not acceptable that discharges from Sellafield could be detected in the Arctic, possibly affecting "the food we get from the sea", he told the environment committee in his parliament. "The UK and France must be held to their promises."
The NII findings on safety lapses and falsification of records at the British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) plant made for "shattering reading", he said. He noted the heightened extent of Irish concerns about Sellafield continuing to operate. The Minister of State, Mr Joe Jacob, who has responsibility for Sellafield issues, said the Auken strategy would receive strong Irish backing. He believed the OSPAR agreement held out the prospect of "total cessation" of operations at Sellafield "provided nuclear forces in Europe such as Britain and France are not allowed to row back in any way from it".
On the Danish move, BNFL communications director Mr Colin Duncan said the company was "committed to working towards the OSPAR aspirations". BNFL had reduced discharges to less than 1 per cent of what they were 20 years ago and remained committed to "near to zero" discharges by 2020, he added.
