Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

On this day 20 years ago, the devastating potential of nuclear power was unleashed by the explosion of just one reactor at Chernobyl. Some 190 tonnes of uranium and graphite were expelled into the atmosphere, contaminating for thousands of years an area around the plant the size of England and Ireland combined. The people of Chernobyl were exposed to radioactivity 90 times greater than the explosion at Hiroshima, and yet only 3% of the radioactivity contained in the plant was released. I acknowledge that the Government has been helpful in supporting the work of the Chernobyl Children's Project and the many other groups trying to alleviate the victims' suffering, which continues across the generations. I also thank Adi Roche and the many volunteers and families involved since the disaster, many of them in my constituency.

The question is whether the Taoiseach will to any practical extent help prevent another such disaster closer to home at Sellafield. It is ominous that after the RTE "Fallout" programme, the Government number, 1890 443322, was playing a recorded announcement or else engaged when people to whom I spoke sought more information. God help us were we to have a disaster. The Taoiseach speaks of having an emergency plan published, but will he circulate it? Now is when people are most likely to read it, given the anniversary we are discussing today. Will the Taoiseach require the emergency services to carry out an exercise, something that the fire service, for example, has mentioned? The Irish Times has reported that the emergency services are ill-equipped to deal with nuclear disaster. One reason is that they have never carried out an exercise to assess how they might cope in the event of a major emergency. I know that the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, who was in the House, has not audited local authorities' emergency plans, and the emergency services are not clear that they have acceptable measures in place.

The Taoiseach speaks of paying attention to television and finding out what the British Government is thinking. Will he make a submission on behalf of the Government to the British regarding their talk of expanding their nuclear programme? Is it not a basic requirement of the Government that it state that we will not stand idly by while the potential for another Chernobyl grows across the water?

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