Meeting sought over nuclear waste dump

Sinn Féin Moyle Councillor Oliver McMullan says the party is seeking an urgent meeting with the British Government over fears that a nuclear waste dump could be built at the closest part of Scotland to the Six Counties.

McMullan, a councillor in the Cushendall area, says he is concerned by the radioactive threat posed by the suggested dump for 27 nuclear submarine reactors, at Machrihanish on the Mull of Kintyre, 13 miles across the North Channel from Torr Head.

The British Military is considering storing radioactive submarine material on a former RAF base in Machrihanish. The site was shortlisted as a possible option after the Ministry of Defence looked at 107 suggested locations.

McMullan, a longtime campaigner against World War Two munitions dumping in the North Channel, says the nuclear reactors would be as close to North Antrim as Belfast is to Bangor and adds that two or three US submarine nuclear reactors have already been dumped off the Scottish naval base at Faslane.

"This is something we are totally against," says McMullan adamantly. "There needs to be more discussion on this. We don't want more stuff dumped in our back yard.

"The problem has never been addressed and we don't want any more of this. We want to clean up the seas."