‘No’ to nuclear waste dump

SIR, — The people of South Down will say ‘no’ to an underground nuclear waste dump in our area.

For many years we fought successfully against the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing site from being used as a location for the storage of the world’s nuclear waste.  

Sellafield is just situated across the Irish Sea from Co Down and still reprocesses the world’s nuclear and dirty waste. We don’t want this 

anywhere near our precious environment.

We are also now aware that the British Government is pursuing other geologically suitable sites in Northern Ireland such as the Newry, Mourne and Down area. If Sellafield was not considered suitable, then the South Down area is definitely not suited for probably the same reasons.  

Both the Mournes and Sellafield are situated on the same geological fault line which would make our area totally unsuitable to dump the world’s reprocessed nuclear waste which would travel here from Sellafield across the Irish Sea — if there was ever a minor tremor or earthquake through the shifting of tectonic plates. 

The Mournes is also an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Sellafield is situated beside the Lake District National Park.

Consultation with the public and local communities on this issue has been sporadic and the message to the British Government is loud and clear — we do not want the world’s reprocessed nuclear waste stored in a dump in our area. 

We want measures to protect and develop our environment that complements the needs of our rural and urban communities in Co Down. I await to hear what measures the government have to do just that and what action the Irish Government, as a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, will take to prevent the dumping of such dirty nuclear waste on the island of Ireland.

Yours etc,

MARGARET RITCHIE,

Former South Down MP.