CONTINUED IRISH ATTENTION TO THE EUROFAB SHIPMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DUBLIN 001494

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/05/2014
TAGS: KNNP ENRG PREL
SUBJECT: CONTINUED IRISH ATTENTION TO THE EUROFAB SHIPMENT

REF: A. DUBLIN 1385

B. STATE 198909

C. YOUNG-DOOLEY E-MAILS OF 9/23 AND PREVIOUS

D. IIRG 6 848 010304 R3015552 SEP 04

Classified By: DCM Jonathan Benton, Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).


1. (C) Summary: In recent days, the Irish media have
continued to focus on the U.S.-France Eurofab plutonium
shipment, highlighting opposition by Greenpeace and Irish
activists. In reply, the Irish Government has claimed to
have received assurances that the shipment will not harm
Irish interests. An op-ed in the October 5 Irish Times, the
paper of record, echoes the Government's line that steps have
been taken to protect Ireland's safety. Irish naval assets,
meanwhile, have monitored the progres of the vessels carrying
the plutonium. The media coverage reflects continued Irish
sensitivities about nuclear power and nuclear weapons, which
is aggravated by perceptions of UK apathy regarding possible
pollution of the Irish Sea by the UK's Sellafield nuclear
plant. End summary.


2. (U) Over the past week, the Irish media have continued to
focus on the maritime Eurofab plutonium shipment from the
United States to the French port of Cherbourg (reftels). On
September 29, the Irish Times reported a Paris press
conference by Greenpeace, which claimed that the vessels
carrying the plutonium would breach Ireland's 200-mile
economic exclusion zone. The report noted Greenpeace's
concerns about the possibility of radiation release in a
maritime accident and also about safety standards used by the
French plant that would treat the plutonium. The October 4
Irish Independent reported that an Irish yacht had jointed an
"international flotilla" in Cherbourg harbor protesting the
shipment's arrival. On October 5, the Irish Times carried an
op-ed that defended the shipment, saying that the vessels had
exercised their right of innocent passage. The op-ed added
that the Irish Government had taken all reasonable steps to
protect the safety of Irish citizens and to uphold the
country's nuclear-free policy.


3. (U) On October 4, the RTE 1 and RTE 2 television networks
aired separate short interviews about the shipment with Dick
Roche, appointed Minister of the Environment and Local
Government on September 29. Roche told RTE 1 that "we've
been given assurances that this is not going to be a
continuous trade, and short of asking the vessels to come
into Irish ports and perhaps check them over, I don't see
what else we can do." Roche said to RTE 2 that the GOI had
been given assurances "that this shipment would not enter
Irish coastal waters and it certainly seems that that has
been honored." (Per refs B and C, Embassy did not give the
GOI assurances as to the routing of the vessels.) Roche
explained that "this is a piece of good news for the whole
world because this is part of the decommissioning of nuclear
vessels." He added that "we would be happier if we didn't
have any truck with any form of nuclear material, ... but we
live in a world where that happens to be a reality."


4. (C) Besides Roche's comments, the only other Irish
Government comment on the shipment was a September 20 press
release by former Environment Minister Cullen, in which
Cullen said he would pursue assurances that the shipment
would not enter Irish territorial waters. On October 5, the
Department of the Environment's Assistant Principal Officer
for Nuclear Safety, Joe Mooney (who received Embassy's ref B
demarche) told emboff that there were no plans for additional
GOI statements about the shipment. He noted that his office
had drawn on talking points provided by the Embassy (ref C)
in drafting Minister Roche's talking points for the RTE 1 and
2 interviews. Mooney added that his office would continue to
draw on those points if the nuclear issue were raised at
formal question-and-answer sessions in the Dail (Irish
Parliament) this month.


5. (C) The Irish Naval Service, Air Corps, and Coastguard
have dispatched assets beyond Ireland's territorial waters,
but inside the exclusive fishery zone, to monitor the
movements of the vessels handling the plutonium shipment. A
contact of Embassy DAO reports that these naval sevices were
under political pressure to monitor the vessels in response
to media attention.


6. (C) Comment: Nuclear power continues to be an emotional
subject for Ireland, as borne out by continuing media
coverage of the Eurofab shipment. This sensitivity derives
mainly from the perception that materials from the nuclear
reprocessing complex at Sellafield on the UK's Cumbrian coast
have polluted the Irish Sea -- a concern that Ireland feels
the UK has ignored. The UK Ambassador to Ireland, Stewart
Eldon, told emboffs during a recent lunch that Sellafield had
become the single most serious irritant in UK-Irish relations.
KENNY