Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 3 Jul 1996

Vol. 468 No. 1

Written Answers. - Nuclear Fuel Monitoring.

Seán Haughey

Ceist:

231 Mr. Haughey asked the Minister for the Marine the monitoring, if any, that takes place in the Irish Sea in relation to the movement of nuclear military ships and ships bringing waste material to and from the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14520/96]

Minister for the Marine (Mr. Barrett)

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.

Ireland's resolution seeks to address the deficiencies in the INF Code. The resolution instructs the IMO's Marine Safety Committee (MSC) and the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) to consider extending the INF Code to include the following: route planning, notification to the coastal state, marking of flasks, protection and salvage plans in the event of emergencies, and the designation of sensitive areas in which nuclear shipments must take place.

The deputy chief surveyor of the Department's Marine Survey Office represents Ireland on both the MSC and the MEPC. These committees have been instructed to thoroughly examine Ireland's proposal and to report to the next assembly of the IMO next year with recommendations as to how the INF Code should be strengthened. I am confident that procedures to strengthen the code will have been considered and prepared in time for the next IMO assembly.

In view of the concerns expressed by Ireland and supported by other IMO countries a special consultative meeting to discuss the code, in advance of consideration of it by the MSC and the MEPC, was called by the secretary-general of the IMO last month. Ireland was represented at this meeting by the deputy chief surveyor of the Department of the Marine and the assistant chief executive of the Radiological Protecton Institute of Ireland. Ireland made a detailed presentation at the meeting calling on the code to be strengthened. There was considerable support for Ireland's position. The MSC and the MEPC will take on board the views expressed at this meeting when preparing their recommendations for the strengthening of the code.

On 13 September 1995 an EU Directive concerning reporting arrangements for vessels bound for or leaving Community ports and carrying dangerous or polluting goods (HAZMAT) came into force. Ireland has requested the EU Commission to expand the definition of "dangerous goods" to include substances coming under the INF Code. It has now been agreed that the Commission will prepare as soon as possible a proposal to amend the EU Directive. Such an amendment would have the effect of requiring States to report vessels carrying nuclear materials bound for or leaving Community ports.

I can assure the House that I will continue to pursue every avenue to ensure that a tough new code governing the shipment of nuclear materials is put in place.

With regard to warships, naval auxiliaries or other ships owned and operated by a State and used solely on the State's non-commercial service, the position is that they are normally exempt from international conventions regulating marine transport, maritime safety and protection of the marine environment. However, contracting states to those conventions are asked to ensure that exempted ships act in a manner consistent, as far is reasonable and practicable, with the international conventions.

My Department has raised the issue of the transportation of nuclear weapons by the UK naval service through the Irish Sea with the UK authorities. The UK authorities have advised that they no longer deploy nuclear weapons on board British naval ships but that such weapons may be transported by sea. They further stated that such shipments do not take place outside UK territorial waters and that safety is of paramount importance wherever nuclear weapons are concerned.