§ Mr. BeggsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what emergency plans there are for Northern Ireland following an accident at the Sellafield reprocessing plant.
§ Mr. AtkinsI have been asked to reply.
The operators of the Sellafield plant, as with all operators of nuclear installations, are required as a condition of their site licence, to prepare emergency plans which are subject to approval by the Health and Safety Executive's nuclear installations inspectorate. These plans include a detailed planning zone around each installation and in the case of Sellafied this is 2 km. The boundary of this zone is defined in relation to the accident with the greatest off-site consequences which can reasonably be predicted given the design of the plant, its protective systems and operating limits. These plans also form the basis for an extended response in the very unlikely event that a more severe accident should occur. In the unlikely event of an accident at Sellafield the emergency arrangements detailed in existing plans would be invoked to respond to any off-site consequences. The response would be handled locally and, under existing arrangements, the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland would be notified.
Well-established procedures for dealing with nuclear emergencies were put in place following the Chernobyl accident in 1986. Northern Ireland is included in the radioactive incident monitoring response network established under the national response for the United Kingdom.