Vol. 462 No. 5
37 Ms F. Fitzgerald asked the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications the effectiveness to date of the Government's decision, following recent incidents at Sellafield, England, to pursue a diplomatic initiative by our embassies abroad to dissuade countries from sending nuclear waste to the THORP plant at Sellafield for reprocessing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4838/96]
39 Mr. Dempsey asked the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications the representations, if any, he has made regarding the supply of spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing in the United Kingdom in view of the environmental impact of this on these islands. [3093/96]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 37 and 39 together. At the request of my Department, the Department of Foreign Affairs made formal, high-level diplomatic approaches to the Governments of countries which signed, or which were contemplating signing, reprocessing agreements on spent nuclear fuel with the THORP facility, setting out the concerns of the Irish Government in this area. The Irish position was generally sympathetically received by the authorities concerned and the concerns were then conveyed to the nuclear electricity companies. However, it was pointed out by the Governments concerned that they could not intervene directly in contractual agreements entered into with British Nuclear Fuels.
The Government will continue to make known its concerns about operations at THORP through diplomatic channels and to promote, at every appropriate opportunity in relevant international fora, the Government's opposition to THORP.
