Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 4 Nov 1997

Vol. 482 No. 3

Written Answers. - Cassini Probe.

Róisín Shortall

Question:

32 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the concerns, if any, his Department raised with the United States authorities about the possible environmental problems associated with the Cassini probe; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18100/97]

Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Andrews)

My Department has not been in contact with the United States authorities on the matter raised by the Deputy.

The House will be aware that the Cassini spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral on 15 October on a six-seven year interplanetary journey to Saturn to conduct a four-year study of that planet. Public protests in the United States preceded the launch because of the use of plutonium to power the mission. There were fears that either an accident at the launch or an inadvertent re-entry of the spacecraft to the earth's orbit might release plutonium with incalculable consequences for human health and the environment. In view of the importance which Ireland attaches to nuclear safety issues, as set out most recently in the statement made by my predecessor to the 52nd session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, these worries were well understood in this country also.

I understand that the US authorities, specifically NASA, sought to address these fears by providing information to the public. This material addressed,inter alia, the technical reasons plutonium fuel rather than solar energy was required to power the Cassini mission and the basis for NASA's confidence that neither an accident at launch nor the inadvertent re-entry of the spacecraft to the earth's orbit would occur.