Written Answers. - Sellafield Radiation Emissions.
Proinsias De Rossa
Question:
23
Proinsias De Rossa
asked the
Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications
if his attention has been drawn to recent reports in the Observer newspaper which claimed that a report from the British National Radiological Protection Board estimated that radiation doses from Sellafield would quadruple if THORP went into operation and that the level of emission would cause 200 deaths from cancer worldwide for each year of operation; if he has raised this report with the British authorities; if so, if he has received any reply; if he has sought a copy of the report; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I am indeed aware of the Observer newspaper's article about the British National Radiological Protection Board's report dealing with radiation doses. In fact, the article in question relates to a mixture of two reports recently issued by the NRPB. Since the article's publication I have obtained from the UK authorities copies of the two reports and I have asked the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland to examine them in detail.
The first report dealt with the potential radiation doses to members of the public due to Sellafield discharges at the limits originally proposed by British Nuclear Fuels. While this report focused on the doses received by people living near Sellafield, it also presented estimates of the collective does over the next 10,000 years to the UK and European population for marine and atmospheric discharges. The second report dealt with the collective doses from discharges at the limits proposed in the draft discharge authorisation under consideration at present by the UK authorities. These doses are reported on the effects for all time as well as for a truncated period of 12 years. The second report differs from the first in that, in its consideration of the Sellafield discharges at the limits proposed in the discharge authorisations, distinctions are drawn between THORP and other discharges from the site.
The calculations in the report are based on the assumption that discharges were continuously at the authorised levels. In practice discharges could be expected to be much lower. An important point made in our submission on THORP was that the proposed authorised levels were far higher than is necessary to operate the plant. Nevertheless from the RPII's examination of the reports, it is clear that the operation of THORP will give rise to an increased collective dose to population. However, the UK's NRPB questions the scientific justification of applying risk factors to collective dose figures in order to obtain an index of radiological detriment. The UK's NRPB states that it is questionable to apply risk factors derived for other purposes to possible radiation exposures delivered to populations over thousands of years into the future. It also states that estimating radiological detriment to populations who may exist in the future has little scientific justification. However, there is some validity in estimates of detriment for collective doses estimated over a specified period being used for comparison purposes. The report, however, does not provide any estimates of deaths or detriment as reported in the newspaper.
The Deputy will appreciate that there is a great deal of technical detail, statistical data and figures involving collective doses to the UK population, European and the world recorded in man-sieverts which is not possible to reproduce here today. However, copies of the reports are available from the RPII's library in Clonskeagh.
The Irish Government's views on THORP and its radioactive discharges are well-known to the UK Government. Ireland is entitled to object to the operation of THORP because of the increased radiation dose which people here will receive due to the routine discharges of radioactive waste to the Irish Sea and to the atmosphere from the plant. The RPII points out, however, that this increase in dose during the normal operation of the plant will amount only to 0.2 per cent of the average radiation dose already being received by a person in Ireland from all sources of radiation.
