I thank the Minister for attending.
There is an urgent need for the Minister for Foreign Affairs to protest to the British Govern ment and to strongly oppose the shipping, by way of the Irish Sea, of a cargo of reprocessed MOX fuel in two ships from Japan in the coming months. The grave nature of this development cannot be underestimated. I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this issue in the Dáil by way of matter on the Adjournment. I urge the Minister and the Government to consider other ways in which this House can express our unanimous rejection of this latest outrage from British Nuclear Fuels and the British Government. We should create this opportunity before the summer recess.
The seeds of this debacle were sown three years ago. The highly dangerous and radioactive MOX fuel in question was transported from Sellafield to Japan in 1999. Upon its arrival in the Far East, staff at BNFL admitted they had faked the materials safety records. The Japanese Minister for Trade and Industry described the affair as deplorable and said "Confidence in BNFL has been destroyed." The end result was that the Japanese authorities ordered the British authorities to take back the deadly cargo. I would like to emphasise that this is a deadly cargo. It contains enough plutonium to create 50 nuclear bombs. Governments are protesting all along this cargo's likely route on its 18,000 mile journey from the port of Takahama to Barrow in Furness. The two vessels carrying the nuclear cargo, the Pacific Pintail and the Pacific Teal have been armed but will not have an armed escort. The danger of attack is obvious.
The British Government has argued quite absurdly and outrageously that this shipment has nothing to do with operations at the MOX plant at Sellafield. This latest lie is an attempt by the British Government to slip out of its legal commitment under the United Nations International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea made last November in Hamburg. However, the return of the MOX fuel is one of five conditions set by the Japanese Government and Electrical Utilities for new MOX contracts with Britain. This deadly transport is, therefore, vital for the future of British Nuclear Fuels and if successful could lead to tens of thousands of kilos of plutonium being shipped out of Sellafield over the next ten to 20 years.
This shipment must be stopped not only for its own sake but in order to thwart the future of the MOX plant which the Irish Government and people have rejected. This is an act of international piracy and sabotage by the British Government and we in this House must vehemently and unanimously oppose it. We must join with other Governments around the world to stop what is a grave danger and what will be but the herald of even greater dangers to come.
I would like to pose a couple of questions. Why in the face of the unanimous opposition of the Irish people as represented by the Irish Government and significant opposition in Britain did BNFL proceed with its MOX plant? Is it not the case that the plant processes nuclear fuel from all over the world thus creating greater traffic of this material on the Irish Sea? Why did BNFL falsify its quality control standards for MOX fuel leading to the sending back of this cargo of fuel from Japan? How can anyone trust BNFL when a State like Japan, which uses nuclear power, cannot do so? I strongly urge the Minister and his colleagues in Government to significantly increase their efforts and to join with an ever widening international community in concerted action in opposition to this planned transportation of deadly cargo into Irish waters and all the dangers that presents for us in the immediate future and years to come.