Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 7 February 2024
30. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications further to Parliamentary Question No. 11 of 17 January 2024, if he will report on the findings of Department officials who visited the Sellafield site in July 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5048/24]
View answerThe Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) is the lead government department for radiation policy and nuclear safety. My Department is assisted in this role by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) who provide scientific and technical expertise on nuclear and radiological matters. The main Irish legislation in relation to Radiological Protection is the Radiological Protection Acts 1991 to 2018, which comes under my remit as Minister.
Under the auspices of the UK Ireland Contact Group on Radiological Matters, a delegation from my Department, the EPA and the UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) was hosted by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) at the Sellafield Ltd site on 25 July 2023. The delegation did not include an official from the Department of Foreign Affairs as that Department is not a member of the UK Ireland Contact Group, which was specifically established to discuss nuclear safety and radiation policy matters at official and technical levels.
The group took a close-up look at some of the facilities of particular interest to Ireland and were briefed on their current status and plans for decommissioning, including the Pile Fuel Storage Pond, the Magnox Swarf Storage Silo (MSSS), the Pile Fuel Cladding Storage Silo Construction Site, and the High-Level Waste Plant.
The decommissioning operations planned and on-going are substantial and it is understood that the full decommissioning of Sellafield will take approximately 100 years.
