Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 133: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the volumes of highly active liquid waste being held in Sellafield awaiting vitrification; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30295/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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In January 2001, the UK Health and Safety Executive's nuclear installations inspectorate issued British Nuclear Fuels with a specification to formalise a programme to reduce the level of highly active liquid waste stored at Sellafield to a buffer stock limit of 200 m3 by 2015. This specification, which is a legal requirement, required that the maximum permitted holding of this liquid waste would reduce from the then permitted holding level of 1,575 m3 by about 35 m3 per annum until 2012, when it would be decreased rapidly to the buffer stock limit of 200 m3

The information available to my Department is that the British Nuclear Group Sellafield Limited, which is the new name for the company that operates the Sellafield site, continues to comply with the specification. I sought and received confirmation that this remains the case when I met the Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry earlier this week.

The Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland and the Government have long been concerned about the continuing storage of this highly active waste in liquid form in tanks at Sellafield and have been pressing, and will continue to press, the UK authorities to accelerate the rate of vitrification. This liquid waste arises from the reprocessing operations at Sellafield. These operations are strongly opposed by Ireland on the grounds that they are an unacceptable threat to human health, the environment and the economy. The Irish Government will, therefore, continue to pursue every available avenue, both diplomatic and legal, to bring about a safe and orderly end to reprocessing operations at Sellafield towards removing that threat permanently.