Following their meeting with a cross-party delegation of Norwegian politicians at Sellafield earlier in the week, CORE campaigners were invited to brief members of the British Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body on Sunday prior to the their visit to Sellafield.
Committee D members of the Body are drawn from the UK and Irish Government and from members of Local Assemblies – with particular interest in environmental and social affairs. Meeting for dinner at the Ennerdale Hotel, CORE was invited by Committee chairman Kevin McNamara MP to ‘sing for our supper’.
“We are always pleased to brief people before they receive the red-carpet treatment from BNFL. Members were particularly interested in reprocessing, MOX, discharge, security and health issues and we were able to provide detailed background information on these topics and to advise on the kind of questions they should ask “.
The Norwegian visitors’ specific interest was the continuing discharge by BNFL of Technetium-99 (Tc-99) which was polluting their fishing grounds. CORE warned the delegation that under the Environment Agency’s current discharge proposals, these discharges were set to double over the next few years. It was agreed that ways of closer co-operation between Norway and CORE needed to be explored.