Plaid Cymru (Welsh National Party) hits out at Sellafield

national | miscellaneous | news report Thursday April 25, 2002 12:25 by Graham Caswell caswell at indigo dot ie

Resistance Grows

"There are people in the world who would be very happy to die in order to make the North Wales coast uninhabitable."

Dafydd Wigley, Welsh national assemply member for the Welsh national party Plaid Cymru has accused UK Government Ministers of "astounding complacency" over the risk of a nuclear disaster affecting the North Wales coast. The Caernarfon AM is angry over the Government response to security concerns over the expansion of the Sellafield nuclear processing plant in Cumbria.

The North Wales assembly member raised the issue after the Irish government failed in its attempts to block plans to manufacture Mox fuel at the site adjoining the Irish Sea. Westminster Health Secretary Alan Milburn and Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett have now ruled out safety fears in a letter to Welsh Health Minister Jane Hutt. But Mr Wigley said: "This response by the UK Government shows astounding complacency.

He accused the Government of seeming "to be wholly run by poodles, yelping to the call of the nuclear power industry".

Mr Wigley has met Ministers in the Irish Parliament to discuss their concerns.

Worried assembly members had called for continued close monitoring of the environment and any health effects and raised fears about the potential dangers of a terrorist attack and the general safety of the site.

Clwyd West Labour assembly member Mr Pugh said that the risk of an uncontrolled release from storage tanks at Sellafield was remote. But he added: "It can't be ruled out after September 11.

"There are people in the world who would be very happy to die in order to make the North Wales coast uninhabitable."