David Norris (Independent)

I never got any. The Minister did not get any either. That is a national scandal, I feel a tribunal coming on. They are not the slightest use anyway so I am not too deprived but I would have liked to have seen what they looked like. I had to contact the Minister's predecessor to get my millennium candle as well so the north side is deprived, with neither iodine tablets nor candles. We need the candles because when the lights go out across Europe, we will need to light our millennium candles to see where we put the iodine tablets.

The Minister of State's speech dealt effectively with the court cases but the outcome, even though it is a marginal advance, represents what in the game "relievio" are called baby steps. The plant was told they must make a better attempt to communicate and there was nothing mandatory in the judgment. That is a pity and I hope this motion encourages the Minister to continue his efforts to get this matter properly resolved.

This has all happened in my lifetime. Until 1947, Sellafield was a straightforward munitions factory. In 1947 it decided to go into the nuclear business and by 1949 had generated enough radioactive material to explode a bomb in Australia. I remember clearly the fire in 1957 at what was then called Windscale. In 1949 there was already a 2 km pipeline discharging radioactive material but that was controlled while the 1957 incident was an uncontrolled discharge of radioactive material into the atmosphere. There are lingering suspicions that this has a connection with clusters of leukemia around Dundalk. I have a feeling in my bones that there is a connection, although it is difficult to prove scientifically. Certainly there are parallel clusters of leukemia occurring in the children of those who were workers at Sellafield.

The fire in 1957 was a disaster greater in scale than the incident at Three Mile Island in America. That is the risk we face. Why are we facing it? Even the British accept it is an economic nonsense. It was always an economic nonsense and a loss maker, so why did BNFL go into it? It could not even get that right because it lied and falsified material, alienating its largest client, Japan. For no economic advantage to the British Exchequer and in a manner that alienates not just Ireland but also Norway, which was co-plaintiff in the case, BNFL is transporting dangerous materials to be reprocessed from all over the world through the Irish Sea and by aeroplane. There are concerns that these convoys, either at sea or on railway tracks, could be the subject of a terrorist attack. That is not likely but it is a possibility that must be examined. There is also the possibility of an aeroplane being crashed into the plant, considering the Americans did not manage to stop a similar attack on the Pentagon. This would result in the discharge of 8 million litres of material which is an enormous amount. We have the most radioactive sea about which there are music hall jokes. We are directly concerned in getting the British Government to take a proper view on the matter.

The report of the European Parliament's scientific and technological options assessment concluded that radioactive discharges from the Sellafield and La Hague sites are the largest anthropogenic releases of nuclides in the world. It also concluded significant increases in the incidence of leukaemia has occurred both near La Hague and the Sellafield reprocessing plant. This report is not suggesting post hoc ergo propter hoc which, as the Minister of State knows, is most often a logical fallacy.

The report also concluded that the release of a fraction of high-level radioactive waste at Sellafield will be several dozen times greater than the release at Chernobyl and cause over 1 million fatal cancers. Any Member who has seen what happened at Chernobyl, even on television, will be alarmed. It also notes dissatisfaction with the European Commission's verification procedures.

I strongly support this motion. In some ways I looked at it with a certain degree of light-heartedness but it does not detract from the strong support I give it. I congratulate the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government and the Government on their work so far, but more must be done. The Minister must use this motion, which will be passed unanimously, as a political instrument with his colleagues across the Irish sea.