Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-09-13-Speech-1-070"
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"en.19990913.6.1-070"2
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"Mr President, I agree with the tenor and the thrust of the McKenna report. Indeed, as a Member of the European Parliament who represents the east coast of Ireland, this is an issue which is close to my heart.
It has come to my attention that British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. has applied to the British Department of the Environment for authorisation to discharge high levels of technetium 99 into the Irish Sea in the near future. If BNFL is successful with this application, while it will result in halving the levels of technetium 99 that are dumped in the Irish Sea, this will still be 15 times higher than the levels which existed in 1992. If BNFL has problems in discharging radioactive products such as technetium 99, it should store such waste materials on land in Britain as opposed to dumping them in the Irish Sea.
It is quite timely that BNFL is making applications to the British Government to deal with how much radioactive materials it can discharge into the Irish Sea. I say this because 15 September – Wednesday of this week when there will be a lot happening – is the deadline which has been given by the Radioactive Discharges Commission of the Ottawa Convention for the British Government to come up with proposals as to how best it is going to substantially reduce the discharge of radioactive substances into the marine environment.
One must remember that the Ottawa Convention on Marine Pollution has at its core the principle of substantially reducing the use of radioactive substances. A clear plan in this regard must be implemented by the year 2000. We know that the British Government has done nothing to implement its obligations under the Ottawa Convention to date. I await with interest to see how the British Department of the Environment intends to comply with its legal obligations under this important convention. As the British Government addresses the final details on this issue, it should be remembered that there is no safe level of radiation. The Irish Sea must not be used as a soft option for the disposal of radioactive nuclear materials by BNFL. Ever since the opposition to the THORP nuclear plant in 1993, the level of radioactive discharges from nuclear operations in Cumbria has substantially increased.
In conclusion, I support the proposals in the report. From the Irish perspective, we will have more confidence in the British regulatory authorities if they reject this application in its totality. It is up to the British Government to force BNFL to come up with alternative technological methods to deal with the discharge of such materials. I congratulate Ms McKenna on her report."@en1
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