There has been angry reaction from Irish MEPs to a report commissioned by the European Parliament highlighting the dangers of the British nuclear installation at Sellafield and the French plant at Cap de la Hague.
The report, prepared by a Paris-based group of experts, said the level of radioactivity released into the environment from the two plants corresponded to "a large-scale nuclear accident every year". A nuclear accident at these plants could be much worse in its effects than Chernobyl and could lead, "globally over the long term", to more than a million fatal cancers.
"The European Commission does not effectively use its verification rights," the report by the WISE-Paris group continued. "The Commission is highly dependent on information provided by member-states and is therefore apparently not in a position to guarantee that the basic safety standards are respected concerning the La Hague and Sellafield facilities. It is doubtful whether the Commission is in a position to determine whether the reprocessing activities are liable to result in the radioactive contamination of the water, soil or airspace of another member-state."
Labour MEP for Dublin Mr Proinsias De Rossa said the report was "a damning indictment of years of turning a blind eye to the effects of allowing waste products from the reprocessing plants into the environment".
He said the Government should examine the report closely, "and assess its importance for the court case it is proposing for the closure of Sellafield".
Green MEP for Leinster Ms Nuala Ahern called on the Government to take an action in the European Court of Justice against the Commission for "failing in its obligations" to monitor the plants and ensure that safety standards to prevent contamination of the environment were being implemented.
"The Government keeps saying it is going to do something . . . They have had four years in government and done nothing that counts at a formal government-to-government level," Ms Ahern said.
Fine Gael MEP for Leinster Ms Avril Doyle said there had been "a long history of arrogance on behalf of the British authorities towards the legitimate concerns of their friendly Irish neighbours".
She urged the Commission to ensure there were common security standards for all nuclear installations, "not just in the member-states but in all the European Union accession countries as well".
Mr Jim Fitzsimons (FF) told the Parliament: "We in Ireland will vigorously pursue every political, legal and diplomatic option open to us to force the British Government to close the Sellafield nuclear plant."
He said that over the next few weeks, the Commission "should and must carry out a full and independent evaluation of all the environmental and public health risks of all the operations of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd" at Sellafield.
The report, Possible Toxic Effects from the Nuclear Reprocessing Plants at Sellafield (UK) and Cap de la Hague (France), was published by the Parliament's Scientific and Technological Option Assessment committee.