In November 2012, I published a summary of a report prepared by an independent team of international experts, commissioned by Ireland, which assessed the probable risks to Ireland from incidents at the Sellafield nuclear site. The experts quantified the likelihood of incidents occurring at Sellafield, and as stated in the public summary, an incident at the Sellafield site resulting in the release of radioactive material would give rise to "no observable health effects in Ireland". The report is a valuable input to developing Government policies including National Emergency Planning. This public summary document is available on my Department's website at
www.environ.ie.
In May 2011, shortly after the tsunami that led to the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, the European Council called for comprehensive and transparent risk and safety assessments - "stress tests" - of all EU nuclear power plants. The Sellafield site is a waste repository and reprocessing facility and not a nuclear power plant, and thus did not fall within the strict parameters of the EU "stress test" programme. The criteria developed for the EU stress tests were specifically aimed at, and designed for, power reactors and not for non-power sites such as Sellafield, and therefore only results from these stress tests were subject to the EU peer review process. However, the UK required the operators of all of their nuclear sites, including non-power sites such as Sellafield, to apply the EU “stress test” assessment criteria to their sites. The results of the assessments were reported to the UK Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), whose mission is to secure the protection of people and society from the hazards of the nuclear industry.
Ireland has on-going engagements with the United Kingdom in relation to radiological matters. For example, my Department and the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland meet regularly with their counterparts from the UK Department of Environment and Climate Change to discuss radiological matters of mutual interest. I intend to continue to ensure that the UK authorities are kept aware of any concerns held by Ireland, and to take all possible steps to ensure that the highest levels of safety apply at Sellafield, and at other existing and any “new-build” nuclear facilities in the UK.
