Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 20 Jun 2001

Vol. 538 No. 4

Written Answers. - Nuclear Plants.

Ivor Callely

Question:

67 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the evaluation which has been carried out on the discharges of radioactive waste by British Nuclear Fuels into the Irish sea; the short-term and long-term implications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16995/01]

Minister of State at the Department of Public Enterprise (Mr. Jacob)

I would refer the Deputy to my reply to Parliamentary Question No. 88 of 13 February 2001 and to Parliamentary Question No. 102 of 27 March 2001.

In my reply to those parliamentary questions, I referred to the marine radioactivity monitoring and research programme carried out throughout the year by the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland – RPII – and to the results of the programmes produced and published by the RPII in a series of bi-annual reports. These reports include full results of all of the analyses made and detailed evaluations of their significance. The most recent of these reports covers the period 1998-99. Current results are published on the Institute's website each quarter.

The significant source of radioactive contamination in the Irish Sea is the discharge of low level radioactive liquid waste from BNFL's nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at Sellafield. Since 1994, the discharges of technetium-99 were increased significantly when the UK authorities granted BNFL an increase in their discharge limit for technetium-99 from 10 TBq per annum to 200 TBq per annum. In addition, the remobilisation of radionuclides, particularly caesium-137, deposited on the sediments of the Irish Sea is now an important source of contamination of the seawater of the western Irish Sea.

The consumption of fish and shellfish from the Irish Sea is the dominant pathway through which radioactive contamination of the marine environment results in radiation exposure of Irish people. A heavy consumer of seafood from the north-west Irish Sea would receive an exposure of about 1.5 microsieverts in a year, considerably below the average annual dose to a person in Ireland of about 3000 microsieverts from all sources of radiation. Caesium-137 remains the dominant radionuclide accounting for approximately 60% of the doses received by the Irish consumer and technetium-99 for approximately 20%.

The continued contamination of the Irish marine environment from the Sellafield plant is totally unacceptable and I am continuing to exert maximum pressure on the UK authorities for the cessation of all radioactive discharges.