Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

What specifically resulted from the EPA's reports on radioactivity in those parts of the Irish Sea close to Sellafield? Dr. Lehane referred to the commission and said the results showed that the population of another state was not likely to be harmed by exposure. What is the effect under normal operating conditions? An accident may not happen under normal operating conditions but under abnormal ones.

I am not a scientist but I have been to a nuclear plant and am aware of some of the issues surrounding storage of nuclear waste. There are major concerns because nuclear waste cannot be wished away and we cannot hope it will go away. It will be with us for thousands of years. With the construction of eight new plants, in addition to the ones already there, in the three foreign countries, England, Scotland and Wales, which are on an island with a fairly small land mass, there will be a huge volume of nuclear waste in Britain. Some of the plants are getting old, for example, Torness will probably be decommissioned within the next five or ten years. Perhaps the Department and the EPA could give a concise answer to each of those three questions.