Greenpeace claim on radiation data rejected

The body which advises the Government on nuclear protection issues has rejected claims by Greenpeace International that it failed to release information detailing increased levels of Sellafield contamination along the Irish coast.

The Minister of State responsible for nuclear safety, Mr Joe Jacob, yesterday expressed complete confidence in the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII). "This is an internationally respected organisation and I am quite happy with the scientific advice that is coming to me," he said.

He also responded to calls from Greenpeace that he use opportunities to bring international pressure on the UK government to end Sellafield discharges.

The Government, he said, had made two formal submissions to the UK Environment Agency on proposals for changed discharges from Sellafield, the most recent in March.

He would also be attending the OSPAR meeting on marine pollution in Lisbon in July. "We see OSPAR as the best opportunity in a long time" to put international pressure on Britain to reduce Sellafield discharges.

Greenpeace International yesterday launched a strong attack on the RPII, claiming it was being used as a "fall guy" for British Nuclear Fuels Ltd, which operates the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant.

"If the RPII is not providing the information they have to the public, they are doing a bad job," stated Mr Damon Moglen, who co-ordinates Greenpeace's plutonium campaign. "We are disturbed because there isn't adequate public information about what is happening now" with contamination levels along Irish Sea coasts, he stated.

The RPII last published full details of tests on seaweed, fish and shellfish in October 1996, data which covered sampling between 1993 and 1995, he said; no new detailed information had been provided since despite the opening of two new Sellafield plants, Thorp and Earp.

Greenpeace sampling data released last week showed high levels of radioactivity in sediments recovered near Sellafield's waste discharge pipes. In 1997 the group published data which showed that lobsters taken from the Irish Sea had levels of one radioactive substance, technetium-99 (Tc-99), that were almost 250 times the levels recorded in 1993.

He also criticised the view taken in the RPII's 1996 report that Tc99 levels recorded at that time in Ireland had no health implications. The RPII was out of step with stated Government policy, which objected to any contamination of the Irish marine environment, he said.

The Green Party MEP, Ms Nuala Ahern, added her own criticisms of the RPII at yesterday's press conference.

"I have concerns about their openness," she said. "My concern focuses on why the figures [on Sellafield contamination] which cause such concern to the Nordic states do not seem to concern the Irish authorities."

The RPII yesterday dismissed these criticisms. It "publishes all the results of its environmental monitoring programmes. No data have ever been withheld by the institute," its deputy chief executive, Mr John Cunningham, stated.

It publishes marine monitoring data in periodic reports. The most recent report for 1993 to 1995 was released in October 1996. The next report, the institute said in a statement, covered 1996 and 1997 and would be published "in the very near future".

It also released data in its annual reports, the RPII said. It highlighted data specifically relating to Tc-99 levels for 1996, published in its annual report last year.

The data were presented in a graphic showing steeply rising Tc99 levels in seaweed recovered in Greenore and Balbriggan, and showed data for 1988 to the end of 1996.

While high Tc-99 levels had been recorded in the eastern Irish Sea, the highest levels detected along the Irish coast were "more than 100 times lower," Mr Cunningham said. "All measurements made in fish and shellfish from Irish coastal waters are below EU safety limits."

It was also, he said, "the considered judgement of the RPII, based on the results of its detailed monitoring programme, that the situation does not give any grounds for any reservations by people about eating fish, or in any other way enjoying the amenities of the Irish Sea."