US embassy cable - 04DUBLIN1494

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