Dumping of toxic and radioactive waste is prohibited under the Sea Pollution Acts and my Department is not aware of any such dumping taking place in Irish water. The Irish marine environment is, however, contaminated by radioactive discharges from nuclear installations in the UK.
Discharges of radioactive waste from the British Nuclear Fuels reprocessing plant at Sellafield continue to be the dominant source of radioactive contamination of the marine environment. The Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland, in accordance with its statutory responsibilities, carries out a marine radioactivity monitoring programme throughout the year. The primary objective of the ongoing monitoring programme is to assess the exposure of the Irish population resulting from radioactive contamination of the Irish marine environment. That involves the routine sampling and testing of radioactivity in fish, shellfish, seaweed, sediments and sea water and the RPII publishes the results of its programme, which include levels of radioactivity in the Irish Sea, in a series of marine monitoring reports.