A highly critical report on a major leak at the Thorp nuclear reprocessing facility in Sellafield has revealed that another radioactive leak at the plant went unnoticed for years, while three workers suffered serious radioactive contamination after yet another leak.
The report said the two incidents, along with the serious leak discovered in April, provided evidence of a culture of complacency among staff about accidents.
According to the report on the discovery in April of a leak of 83,000 litres of radioactive liquid, containing 20 tonnes of uranium and plutonium, there was another radioactive leak in 1998, caused by an eroded pipe.
The report said the leak went "unnoticed for a period of years" even though samples indicated radioactivity in the leak area.
The report, by a board of inspection set up by the British Nuclear Group, a subsidiary of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL), which owns Sellafield, said there was another accident in February when three workers became "grossly contaminated" by a leak while carrying out maintenance.
Yesterday The Irish Times reported that the inspectors raised serious safety concerns at the plant after they identified operational complacency.
The report said the latest leak began in July but was not identified until April. Evidence of it was ignored as a calculation error because staff thought the volumes were too big.
Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has sought an urgent meeting with representatives from the British government, and has said he is concerned that Sellafield's operators failed to provide sufficient information about the leak when the Irish Government was first informed. He accused BNFL of "gross incompetence at best, concealment at worst".
Labour's nuclear safety spokesman, Emmet Stagg, called on Mr Roche to make "a full statement on the Government's knowledge of the circumstances and extent of the leak and why the public were not made aware of the scale of the problem".
Green Party environment spokesman Ciarán Cuffe called on Mr Roche to visit the Thorp plant and to express his concerns directly to BNFL management.
Sinn Féin's environment spokesman Arthur Morgan said the failure of BNFL personnel to report fully the leak at the Sellafield plant was symptomatic of the "culture of cover-up, hiding, deceit and lying that has been endemic within BNFL for many years".