I am, of course, aware of the incident referred to by the Deputy which was widely reported by the press both here and in the United Kingdom last September. The UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provided full details of the matter in their quarterly statement of nuclear incidents.
This particular incident took place on 15 September 1991 following maintenance work on a monitoring cell at British Nuclear Fuel's (BNFL) Sellafield Waste Vitrification Plant. In order to facilitate this work two shield doors, normally closed during such operations, were opened to allow access. When operations were restarted, a container of vitrified waste was raised into the cell and it was then observed that the shield doors had remained open. Action was then taken to close them, thereby reinstating the shielding. No workers were in the area at the time, no-one was exposed to radiation and the incident was of no radiological significance for Ireland. Accordingly, I have not raised the matter with the UK authorities. The vitrification plant was shut down following this incident. The HSE's nuclear installations inspectorate granted BNFL permission to resume limited operations in the plant in January 1992.
Any significant incidents at nuclear plants in the UK are reported to my Department under informal procedures agreed at meetings of the Ireland-UK Contact Group on Nuclear Matters. I am fully satisfied that these arrangements provide for an adequate exchange of information between officials of both countries and provide me as Minister with precise and up-to-date data which is essential for our overall monitoring of these installations.