Government on Sellafield

national | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday May 21, 2003 12:07 by Justin Moran - Sinn Fein maigh_nuad at yahoo dot com

This is merely for your information as the Government's response to questions on Sellafield

To the Minister for the Environment and Local Government:

To ask the Minister for the Environment and Local Government the dates on which the Government raised the issue of Sellafield with the British authorities since the formation of this Government, in view of the widespread concern regarding the Sellafield Nuclear Power Plant in this country and abroad; the response received; and the steps he proposes to take to further prioritise the closure of the Sellafield plant.
- Seán Crowe.

For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday, 20th May, 2003.

Ref No: 13825/03

REPLY

Minister for the Environment and Local Government (Mr. Cullen):

I refer to the reply to Question No. 122 of 14 April 2003.

The Government has taken, and will continue to take, a pro-active role in campaigning against reprocessing operations at Sellafield. The Agreed Programme for Government has stated that we regard the continued existence of Sellafield as an unacceptable threat to Ireland; that it should be closed, and that we will use every diplomatic and legal route available to us to work towards the removal of this threat.

The Government has taken an important initiative in pursuit of this policy objective through its separate legal actions, under the OSPAR Convention and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in relation to the Sellafield MOX plant. These actions are proceeding on schedule and are challenging operations at the Sellafield MOX plant on economic, legal, environmental and safety grounds.

In relation to proceedings under the OSPAR Convention, Ireland is seeking access to certain information necessary to carry out an independent evaluation of the economic case for the plant in order to ensure that the plant was justified as required under EU Law. The UK response has been to refuse access to the information concerned on grounds of commercial sensitivity. Oral hearings in relation to these proceedings took place in the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague in October 2002, and a judgement or award is expected shortly.

The UNCLOS action is based on claims by Ireland that the UK is in breach of its obligations under UNCLOS relating to the threat to the marine environment from the continued operation and expansion of Sellafield, the threat to the Irish Sea from shipments of nuclear materials and the inadequacy of the 1993 Environmental Impact Statement for the MOX Plant. The UK has rejected these claims. Oral hearings relating to these proceedings will begin on 10th June 2003 and are expected to last three weeks.

On 16 January 2003, I represented Ireland at the third Ministerial meeting of the British Irish Council (Environment Group). This meeting was chaired by Michael Meacher, MP, UK Minister for the Environment, and included environment ministers from the devolved administrations. The Group has, as part of its agenda, the issue of radioactive waste from Sellafield, and a paper tabled jointly by Ireland and the Isle of Man will be considered on conclusion of Ireland’s legal actions. Other issues for discussion at the next meeting of this Group include highly active waste and long-term storage of plutonium at Sellafield.

On 7 November 2002, I debated the motion ‘That this house would shut down Sellafield’ at UCD’s Law Society. Present at this debate was the UK Minister for Energy, Brian Wilson, MP. I will be meeting Mr Wilson again when he visits Dublin later this month and will again take this opportunity to raise my concerns about Sellafield.

I wrote to Michael Meacher, MP, Minister for the Environment, on the 7th January 2003 outlining my concerns regarding the proposed decision by the UK Environment Agency on future discharges of technetium–99 (Tc-99) from Sellafield. I also wrote to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Patricia Hewitt, MP, on 28 March 2003 in relation to my concerns about the adequacy of security at Sellafield and received a response on 16 April 2003. I published this response in reply to Question No. 141 of 14 May 2003.

My officials and the scientific staff of the RPII also continue to have regular contact with their UK counterparts through both correspondence and meetings.

All contacts between both myself and UK Ministers, and at official level, are welcome, cordial and productive. However, while I believe there has been an increasing recognition among the UK authorities of the serious concerns of the Irish population, there remains a significant divergence in our respective views in relation to Sellafield. The legal and other options open to the Government in relation to Sellafield remain under continuous review.