merrion street

Minister Hogan insists on highest safety levels if new plant to be built at SellafieldMinister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Phil Hogan, T.D., today (24 June, 2011) said that the highest priority must be given to safety at any new nuclear power plant to be built at Sellafield. Reacting to yesterday’s announcement by the UK Government of a list of eight possible sites for the development of new nuclear plants, Minister Hogan reiterated Irish Government concerns on the issue.

Noting that the decision to include nuclear power in its energy mix is a matter for the UK Government, Minister Hogan said "In view of the potential for transboundary impacts, however unlikely, the importance of prioritising nuclear safety and environmental protection cannot be overstated. My Department has engaged bilaterally with the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change on the UK’s plans for new nuclear build, including at Sellafield, since these were first signalled a number of years ago. We will continue in these efforts to ensure that the UK authorities are made aware of and address our concerns and take all possible steps to ensure that the highest levels of safety apply at Sellafield and any other new plants to be developed in the coming years."

The Department has also contributed to formal UK Government consultations on the issue, including on the Nuclear National Policy Statement published by the UK yesterday. This engagement serves to highlight to the UK any concerns identified from Ireland’s perspective in relation to the planned new nuclear build. These include concerns surrounding the long-term management of radioactive waste, on which there are a number of unresolved issues. We have also questioned whether the potential cumulative impacts of having multiple nuclear sites in one area have been adequately assessed. On this issue, it is noteworthy that the list of sites published yesterday includes only one in Cumbria (Sellafield), and not the three contained in the initial draft Policy Statement published in 2009.

The existing Sellafield nuclear re-processing and waste storage facility remains a source of concern to the Government. Minister Hogan met with the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Chris Huhne in March to discuss these. "I met with the Secretary of State Chris Huhne to discuss our ongoing concerns in relation to Sellafield against the background of the tragedy that was unfolding at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. During this meeting I re-iterated the concerns of the Irish Government in relation to Sellafield, both in relation to discharges into the Irish Sea and the risks associated with an accident at the plant. I welcomed the assurance that Sellafield would undergo the nuclear safety stress tests which were agreed at European level in response to the Fukushima accident."

The Department has asked the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland to conduct an independent assessment of possible impacts for Ireland from the UK’s new nuclear build programme. This work is ongoing and it is expected that the results of the assessment will be provided to the Department some time in the autumn.