The notorious National Emergency Plan for Nuclear Accidents is to be given a dry run this weekend.
The plan, which caused controversy when Minister of State Mr Joe Jacob spoke about it on RT╔ radio recently, will be put into action on Saturday when all those involved will gather at a location in Dublin.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Public Enterprise said for obvious reasons the exact nature of the nuclear accident and the timing would not be revealed until Saturday. The simulation will take place at the headquarters of the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland (RPII) in Clonskeagh.
According to the spokeswoman the purpose of the exercise is to fine-tune the recently updated emergency plan. She said it was due to be published shortly but may be altered as a result of experiences on Saturday. It was not possible to give a more definite timescale for its publication, she said.
The exercise will be overseen by the Emergency Response Co-ordination Committee which is under the control of the Department of Public Enterprise. Its role in a nuclear accident with the potential to affect Ireland would be to consider the RPII's technical assessment of the risk and their advice on what counter measures should be taken to minimise radiation exposure to the public.
The committee would also provide advice to the various Ministers with responsibility for the implications and practical issues concerned with RPII recommendations.
The other Departments involved are Health; Defence, Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, Environment, Marine and the Taoiseach. Other agencies include Met ╔ireann, the Garda, fire authorities, Civil Defence, and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. Committee chairwoman Ms Renee Dempsey, principal officer in the Department of Public Enterprise, may also call on other experts.
Asked how the success or otherwise of the exercise would be measured, or if there would be outside assessment, the spokeswoman said: "They are all experts in their field and they will evaluate it." She said a fact sheet on a potential nuclear incident or accident would be delivered shortly to every household in the country.
Fine Gael spokeswoman on the environment, Ms Deirdre Clune,said that although the trial run was a necessary exercise, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, would be better off getting assurances from the British government that everything possible is being done to secure the Sellafield nuclear plant.
"Important questions remained unanswered. Why has a no-fly zone not been imposed on Sellafield? The Cap de la Hague nuclear plant in France now has a no-fly zone of 10 km around the site. Why are their no fighter planes and anti-aircraft missiles protecting Sellafield? Cap de la Hague has all of these security measures in place."
She asked what made Sellafield so different from other nuclear plants that it does not require protection from terrorist attack? "What has to happen before the Taoiseach will start to take the safety of the Irish people seriously?"