THE British nuclear industry lacked a safety culture, the Minister for State for Energy, Mr Emmet Stagg, has said. He was commenting on reports of incidents at two nuclear plants in Wales and Lancashire which occurred last year but which have only now come to light.
At the Wylfa nuclear power station at Anglesey. Wales, it was discovered last August that one drum containing low level radioactive waste was missing and that a second drum which should have been incinerated was still there.
At the Heysham 2 nuclear power station in Lancashire, a faulty valve caused liquid to leak into the Irish Sea over a period of several weeks last December.
The incidents were reported to the Department of Energy on January 8th under bilateral arrangements with the British authorities for the reporting of nuclear incidents.
Mr Stagg said yesterday the frequency of such incidents undermined the confidence of the Government and the Irish people in the assurances given by Britain that safety was a high priority.
The Fianna Fail spokesman on the environment, Mr Noel Dempsey, said yesterday the Government was divided in its approach to the British nuclear industry. Mr Dempsey pointed to the weekend comments of Minister for State for Energy Ms Avril Doyle, who acknowledged that it would take a long time to wean Britain off the nuclear option. He contrasted this with the "shrill interventions" by Mr Stagg.