I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this item. The actual question I put down was to ask the Taoiseach if, in view of the serious injuries and loss of life in volved in the Chernobyl disaster and the threats which have arisen from it to the safety of large sections of the population of Europe, he will outline for the House the state of preparedness of this country to deal with the fall-out from any such nuclear incident which could occur at any time. I was prompted to put this question down as a result of an article in today's Irish Times headed, “No Civil Defence plan on Nuclear Leaks” which really makes the reading and the script for a Gate farce. It says:
A senior Civil Defence officer admitted yesterday that they had "no plan to deal with a Sellafield situation — it's as simple as that" and the only advice they could offer to people in the event of a radioactive cloud heading here was to "stay indoors until it passed over".
That is not good enough. In relation to Chernobyl, people in the USSR are worried that the cloud has contaminated water and that certain areas may not be habitable for up to 300 years. This view was expressed yesterday on a "Morning Ireland" programme by a TCD professor. Somebody should tell the Civil Defence that a nuclear cloud does not pass over. It contaminates, especially if it is mixed with rain. A further farce element was that the Civil Defence officer said:
...they would be taking orders from the Government on how to deal with the situation. However, a spokesman for the Department of Defence said they would be relying in the first instance on Civil Defence mobilising their trained warden service to monitor radioactivity levels throughout the State.
While we are all subject to a nuclear cloud we have Civil Defence ringing the Department of Defence asking them what to do and the Department of Defence replying that it is up to them. The situation would be farcical if it was not so serious.
Along the west coast of our neighbouring island there are 26 nuclear reactors including four at the Sellafield complex plus, in Sellafield, the world's largest reprocessing plant. This is within 60 miles of the Irish coastline. We are consistently asked by this Government and again by the Tánaiste today to believe the British guarantees of safety at Sellafield. Can we believe them, given that the British authorities were less than up front about the leaks earlier this year and on previous occasions? It was bad enough to have to worry about the word of British Nuclear Fuels who have consistently been proven to lie and, when found out, try to cover up. Our own Nuclear Energy Board are making statements which are tantamount to collusion with British Nuclear Fuels and they are attempting to mislead the Irish people. We cannot have faith in an Irish organisation the chief executive of which says:
A Chernobyl-type disaster at one of Britain's nuclear reactors would be "almost an incredible situation which I would find impossible to conceive". This was because they were of a totally different design, with a much higher level of safety than the Soviet reactors.
In regard to his statement that they are at a totally different level of safety, the key difference was that the British reactors were insulated with promary as well as secondary containment areas. Even if there was a melt down of the core very little radioactivity would escape. In Chernobyl it was not a matter of insulation. The roof blew off and even the Russians admit that. No matter how good the insulation if there is an explosion, as apparently happened, the roof will blow off and the radioactivity will spread throughout the adjoining areas. The chief executive of our Nuclear Energy Board does not have any concern about that. He is quite prepared to listen to British Nuclear Fuels.
Dr. Nolan said that the British and American reactors were fitted with an automatic shutdown which could be activated in the event of an emergency. We have had continuous leaks from Sellafield. Where are the higher standards there? Those are only the leaks we are aware of but do we know the full story? On all occasions the information had to be dragged out of British Nuclear Fuels and the British Government.
I was very disappointed with the Tánaiste's statement today in the Seanad when he said that, on the question of access to information it is very alarming that the Soviet accident was not disclosed until some days after it happened and then only after high levels of radioactivity had been detected in Scandinavia. I would remind the Tánaiste that we have been suffering the same type of treatment from British Nuclear Fuels time and time again. Even then they deny that accidents take place and they deny the extent of them.
The most damning statement by Dr. Nolan was that Ireland's east coast was at least 60 miles from the nearest British nuclear power plant and consequently we would not expect severely damaging radioactive fallout to effect us here in the event of a major accident. In view of the internationally recognised facts, as far as I am concerned that statement is dangerously complacent and he is bordering on the criminally irresponsible in his attitude as chief executive of a board whose responsibility it is to protect the interests of the Irish people in nuclear matters.
According to Greenpeace the situation as far as the Russian disaster is concerned is that it would cause around 10,000 cases of cancer over a 20 year period within a radius of 620 miles of the Soviet reactor, not 60 miles. Approximately 4,000 square miles of land would be severely affected for agriculture and 1,200 square miles might have to be evacuated. The National Institute of Radiological Protection in Sweden, who are 700 miles away from the incident, estimated that for that country there would be 2,000 to 4,000 cases of cancer over a 30 year period as a result of the Chernobyl disaster.
I ask the Tánaiste to examine the whole operation of the Nuclear Energy Board as far as protecting the Irish people is concerned. We do not have to wait for disasters from Sellafield. We already have one. A report of the all-party committee of the House of Commons shows that the Irish Sea is the most radioactive sea in the world thanks to the Sellafield processing plant. The Tánaiste talked about the need for a European inspection force. In my view and in the view of my party, there is only one solution to the Sellafield issue and that is to close it down as soon as possible. Given that Sellafield is only 60 miles from this House and that there is a network of reactors along the west coast of Britain, we cannot trust our lives and those of our children to the halfhearted request by this Government. They should not request that Sellafield be closed; they should demand it. They should unite the Irish people with them on this issue. Everybody will join in demanding the closure of Sellafield. One might ask: what is the point in demanding the closure of Sellafield if we have no control over it? The moral pressure by a united country calling for the closure of Sellafield being put on the British Government must count for something. I ask the Tánaiste to join with us in calling for the closure of Sellafield. In the meantime we badly need a national plan to deal with a nuclear accident. We need greater information, education and coordination of our efforts and those of the Civil Defence in this area.
I am horrified by the type of mentality which evidently prevails in the Irish Nuclear Energy Board as was displayed in the article in The Irish Times today. I call on the Minister immediately to investigate that situation. I re-echo our call for the closure of Sellafield and for the Government to join with us in that call. An inspectorate is not good enough. As I said before in this House, an inspectorate will merely show the blue flash in the sky when the explosion takes place and tell us what has happened. That is not good enough. We need the closure of Sellafield and the sooner the better.
