Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-03-12-Speech-1-085"
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"en.20010312.6.1-085"2
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"Mr President, I very much welcome this report on the transportation of radioactive material within the European Union. As you are all aware, this is a matter of deep concern to the Irish people, who are particularly upset that there will be increased shipments of nuclear material through the Irish Sea in the near future.
The German Government has already stated that it is ready to restart the shipments of spent nuclear fuel to Cumbria, and the Dutch Government has overseen the transportation of two shipments of nuclear spent material to Sellafield in recent times. The Dutch Government intends to carry out 17 more shipments in the coming years.
Fighting British Nuclear Fuels and the British nuclear industry is never an easy task – I have been doing it for many years. That is why I am particularly pleased that the Greater London Assembly set up a committee last week to investigate safety concerns on the transportation of radioactive waste by rail through London. Trains loaded with spent nuclear fuel from three nuclear plants in the south-east of England regularly cross London bound for the BNFL plant at Sellafield. They pass through seven boroughs, including West Hampstead, Islington, Hackney, Hammersmith, Fulham, Wandsworth and Bromley. Cartloads of nuclear waste are regularly stored at marshalling yards in Willesden.
The setting up of this new Radioactive Trains Investigative Committee will hear evidence from British Nuclear Fuels and Railtrack, as well as from representatives from local community groups on this very issue. It is anticipated that this committee will report back to the Greater London Assembly by the summer. The committee's foundation comes only a few days after a train carrying spent nuclear fuel flasks derailed as it arrived at the Torness power plant in Scotland. I am pleased that the members of the Greater London Assembly are now equally concerned by the shipment of radioactive nuclear materials in England and, in particular, to the BNFL Sellafield plant in Cumbria.
I hope that politicians and local authorities in Ireland can join forces with members of the Greater London Assembly and other groups in England to intensify the battle to see that BNFL close down the nuclear white elephant of the Sellafield plant.
A separate but related matter is that it is high time for a full environmental impact assessment to be carried out on the likely environmental damage that could arise from nuclear shipments across the Irish Sea. Once again, I call on the European Commissioner for the environment, Mrs Wallström, to invoke powers under the Euratom Treaty to force an independent evaluation of the environmental risks to be carried out for the shipment of nuclear materials in the Irish Sea.
I congratulate the rapporteur, Mr Hatzidakis, on his report."@en1
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