Vol. 459 No. 6
43 Mr. Briscoe asked the Minister for the Environment the steps, if any, he has taken or plans to take arising from his publicly expressed concern about Sellafield in particular and the British nuclear industry in general; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16017/95]
As Minister for the Environment, I avail of all appropriate opportunities to promote at international level the Government's concerns about the risk to the environment from nuclear installations. I most recently did so at the EU Environment Council on 6 October and in the context of the ECE Ministerial Conference, Environment for Europe, held in Sofia from 23 to 25 October. On these occasions, I emphasised that risk of nuclear accidents is rightly perceived by the European public as a leading environmental concern, but that current policies were not sufficiently responding to this concern by proper application of the precautionary and other environmental principles now well established for non-nuclear activities. While accepting that the preponderance of concern in this area related to nuclear facilities in Central and Eastern Europe, I pointed out the deep concern of the Irish public in relation to the operation of the Sellafield installation, including the THORP plant, and as regards the disclosure earlier this year of a serious incident at the Wylfa plant in Anglesea. I also restated at the Environment Council the Irish Government's position on the need for de-commissioning of UK Magnox reactors.
These interventions are part of a consistent Government approach to the question of nuclear risk, on which both the Taoiseach and the Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications have also recently made representations to their UK counterparts.
I act as Chairman of the Ministerial Committee on Sellafield and the Irish Sea set up by the Government to progress policy on nuclear issues. In addition to the actions outlined by the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications in his replies of 12 October 1995 to Questions Nos. 11, 17, 18 and 27, and to Questions Nos. 15, 19, 30 and 80, the committee is keeping in touch with the work of the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Transport, Energy and Communications which are investigating the feasibility of amending the EURATOM Treaty to place greater emphasis on health, safety and environmental aspects. The committee is also involved with an initiative taken by the Department of the Marine, within the International Maritime Organisation, seeking to strengthen the present code of practice governing the carriage by sea or irradiated nuclear fuels.
