The Deputy will be aware of the Government's concern about the shipments of nuclear fuel and plutonium through the Irish Sea. Such shipments are governed by the requirements of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Code on the Safe Carriage of Irradiated Nuclear Fuels known as the INF Code. I consider the INF Code to be deficient in a number of very important respects and I wish to inform the Deputy and the House of the steps which I am undertaking to have them changed.
Nuclear materials, the most lethal of all cargoes, are at present effectively exempt from the normal rules governing dangerous cargoes. Many of the basic requirements for dangerous cargoes are noticeably absent from the INF Code. There is no requirement to plan the route or to notify coastal states; no requirement to carry out hazard evaluations of the materials being transported and of the flasks in which they are contained; there are inadequate arrangements in the event of accident for emergency response, for recovery of materials lost or sunk or for liability regime for compensation and salvage. It is not possible to monitor shipments of nuclear materials unless the Irish Marine Emergency Service is notified of their passage.
At the International Maritime Organisations' (IMO) Assembly in London last November, my colleague at the Department, Minister of State Gilmore, secured agreement from representatives of the 152 countries in the IMO to adopt Ireland's resolution governing the shipment of nuclear materials and to strengthen the INF Code.