Vol. 417 No. 2
51 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Energy if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the EC Commission has placed a German undertaking under special administration (details supplied); and his views on whether a similar action might be possible in relation to the Sellafield reprocessing activity and proposed dump.
The case referred to by the Deputy was a particular incident concerning the undeclared export of nuclear material from a fuel fabrication plant in Germany to the United States of America. It involved an unintentional breach of the elements of the Euratom Treaty which deal with the safeguarding of nuclear materials (to prevent diversion of material to non-peaceful uses), in particular Article 79 which requires detailed operating records to be kept in respect of the transport of nuclear materials.
As the Deputy is aware, all the details and background to the case are contained in the Commission decision of 1 August 1990 (ref. 90/413/Euratom). It is clear that this was an individual breach of the regulations and was dealt with by the EC Commission as the competent authority on that basis, in order to ensure that the proper procedures are followed in the future. As such, this incident cannot have any specific implications for the operation of other undertakings in member states of the Community so long as they are not involved in a similar breach of the regulations.
I am pleased to note that this matter was satisfactorily resolved and the outcome was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities on 22 February last.
The incident had no relevance to safety issues or to our concerns relating to the operation of Sellafield.
