The campaign against the Sellafield reprocessing plant is warranted despite a study which dismissed any link between the plant and Down's syndrome births in Dundalk, the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) has stated.

 The institute was commenting yesterday on a report that showed there could be no connection between the cluster of Down's cases and a serious fire at the then Windscale nuclear reactor in 1957.

 The study examined why six women who had been students at a Dundalk school in 1957 all later gave birth to Down's babies. Irish epidemiologist Dr Geoffrey Dean published his findings last December in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

 While acknowledging the cluster was unusual, he said radioactive contamination from the fire could not have been a factor.

 Three of the six students had left the school some months before the fire, Dr Dean reported. The Government should continue its efforts to have Sellafield closed, according to RPII chief executive Dr Tom O'Flaherty. "Ireland's objections to Sellafield are solidly based," he said. They are based on ongoing pollution but also the risk of a major accident at the plant. "These objections are not undermined because the suggestion of a link with the Down's syndrome cluster in Dundalk has been disproved."