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Norway fishing welcomes Sellafield partial closure
Published: 17 August, 2011
NORWAY'S fishing industry has welcomed the news that a so-called MOX ( mixed oxide fuel) plant at Sellafield on the Cumbrian Coast is to close.
A statement on the website of the Norwegian Fishing Vessel Association said the country's fishing industry had long worked for the closure of the entire site because of the danger of leaks and the threat to fish stocks. It was hoped that this would be the start of that process.
Norwegian nuclear physicist Nils Bohmer of the Bellona Institute said that a serious accident at Sellafield (formerly known as Windscale) would hit Norway with seven times more radiation than the Chernobyl incident. He has also criticised the Norwegian Government for being too complacent about the affects from the plant.
He said that the MOX unit closure could be the start of an eventual total shutdown, but he has warned fishing interests not to get too excited too soon because the complex employed thousands of people and a quick end would impact on the British economy at a time of austerity.
It is not just Norwegian fishing interests who are worried about Sellafield. Fishermen in Ireland, the Isle of Man and on Britain's West Coast have also been unhappy.
Irish campaigners welcomed the MOX closure news and said they hoped it was the beginning of the end for Sellafield. On the Isle of Man, the Manx government has long been opposed to the plant, even though numerous surveys have shown that radio activity levels in seafood caught in the Irish Sea are much too low to be considered a health hazard. The Isle of Man has a growing fishing industry which makes an important contribution to the island's economy. The UK Government has given a commitment to cut Sellafield's discharges to near zero by the year 2020.
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