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Nuclear Plants

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 December 2012

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Questions (73)

Alan Farrell

Question:

73. Deputy Alan Farrell asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will advise on any possible risk factors that may be brought about by the decommissioning and cleaning up of Sellafield; his role in monitoring this process and protecting the environment and persons in exposed areas of the east coast of Ireland due to the difficulty that has arisen out of what has been regarded as the historical neglect of the plant in recent reports by the UK National Audit Office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54230/12]

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Written answers

In 2008 arising from contacts at Head of Government level, a confidential technical information exchange project relating to the Sellafield Site was established, with the cooperation of UK authorities. Through this process, an assessment of the potential risks to Ireland posed by the Sellafield Site and the nearby Low-Level Waste Repository was undertaken on Ireland's behalf by a Team of independent, international experts. The project included site visits by the Team to Sellafield where they were given the opportunity to examine various facilities, access extensive documentation not previously released, and interact with local staff and management. This enabled the Team to develop reliable, accurate risk models and calculations. The work on this project has now been completed and last week a public summary of the assessment was released, and is available on my Department's website at www.environ.ie.

Based on the results of this Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA), the key finding of the Team was that an incident at Sellafield or the nearby Low-Level Waste Repository (LLWR) causing the release of radioactive material would result in no observable health effects in Ireland. Possible scenarios, or combinations thereof, considered by the PRA Team in reaching this conclusion included natural phenomena including earthquakes, meteorite strikes and incidents such as airplane crashes, terrorist attacks, explosions, fires, and human error. The PRA also found that some severe incidents at Sellafield/LLWR have the potential to create significant socioeconomic impacts in Ireland, such as loss of tourism and markets for Irish seafood and farm products because of concerns that radioactive materials may be present, despite monitoring data confirming that all food for sale or export complies with limits set to protect consumer health. The Department will now study the Report and use it to feed into Government policies relating to Sellafield and nuclear policy in the UK. The Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland monitors routine operational discharges from Sellafield, and also monitors developments abroad relating to nuclear installations and radiological safety generally, and keeps the Government informed of their potential implications for Ireland.

I welcome the recent publication of the Report by the UK ’s National Audit Office (NAO) Nuclear Decommissioning Authority – Managing risk reduction at Sellafield. Particularly given Ireland’s longstanding concerns in relation to Sellafield, I believe it is important that the Sellafield site and its operations are subject to regular, independent scrutiny, such as that undertaken in the preparation of the NAO Report. I also welcome the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority statement that it will continue to work to improve capability and performance at the site. Ireland must continue to be vigilant in relation to Sellafield as work to decommission the site over the lifetime of the “Sellafield Plan” continues. It is critical from an Irish perspective that the UK decommissioning of the site is undertaken safely and in accordance with best international practice. I look forward to the continued timely sharing of key information with the UK Authorities in the future on nuclear matters.

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