[article]Dept of Environment bans nuclear explosions in Ireland! Part Deux!

mike65

from indo

Clicky go Bang

The original Bill to punish anyone who might decide to set off nuclear weapons in Ireland was not exactly overly harsh on offenders.

It provided a humble district court judge the power to impose a €5,000 fine and a 12-month jail term.

Critics said the proposed punishment structure would have made Ireland a laughing stock. But the authorities have moved to considerably strengthen the penalties on any person building or worse, detonating, a thermonuclear bomb in this country.

Now offenders -- including any would-be Dr Strangegloves -- would see their trial going forward to the Central Criminal Court, where sentences might better fit the crime.

Atempts to enact the Nuclear Test Ban Bill 2006 were torpedoed by the calling of the last general election.

Now the issue is back on the order paper, decreeing that "a person who carries out, or causes the carrying out of, a nuclear explosion in the State shall be guilty of an offence".

The original Bill was widely mocked for its provision that in certain cases, the district court may try the person charged with that offence "summarily", which theoretically raised the prospect of the Probation Act being applied to first-time nuclear terrorists.

Amazingly the same enabling clause was kept in the draft legislation when it was revived for the current session.

Laughing

Only now has the Government conceded to opposition insistence that treating a nuclear explosion as a minor offence could make this country a laughing stock.

Labour TD Ciaran Lynch said he welcomed the removal of "ludicrous provisions" which would see someone guilty of detonating a nuclear bomb being jailed for only 12 months or fined just €5,000.

"It was crazy," he said. "Were the bill to proceed we would have had the barmy idea, as originally suggested by Environment Minister John Gormley, whereby this serious offence would be treated as minor."

When the Nuclear Test Ban Bill 2006 originally began its course through the Dail, former environment minister Dick Roche said that while some aspects of the legislation might strike people as "a little odd", it would transpose a UN treaty into Irish law.

This would give this country a moral voice in calling on other nations to live up to their nuclear obligations, he said. While it would make it illegal for the first time to carry out a nuclear explostion within the State, "we hope it will never take place", he said.

The provisions also make it an offence here for an Irish citizen to carry out or to cause to be carried out, a nuclear explosion in Ireland, elsewhere on the planet, or in space.

The legislation allows inspectors to enter any premises and to make seizures as required. Building or detonating a device will be an indictable offence, punishable by terms including imprisonment for life.

As the original thread got locked I had to start a new one. :pac:

Mike.

Kama

Ahahaha...

'first-time nuclear terrorists'

Priceless!

Manic Moran

Aren't there already ancilliary laws regarding the detonating of nuclear devices? Offensive Weapons Act, maybe. Unjustified Bodily Harm to anyone who's close enough to be affected by radiation. Malicious damage to the tune of God knows how much otherwise. I am bemused by the fact that they decided they needed to make a particularly large unlawful explosion specifically illegal.

I might take objection to this bit, though...

The provisions also make it an offence here for an Irish citizen to carry out or to cause to be carried out, a nuclear explosion in Ireland, elsewhere on the planet, or in space.

What if there were a perfectly good reason for detonating a nuke? Such as the great big asteroid coming at us? Or more realistically, there's serious thought being given to nuking fault lines to encourage earthquake activity. The theory is the same as that for using artillery pieces on avalanches: Get a small one out of the way now by releasing the tension before it all builds up and a really bad one hits on its own. Would a scientist working for the US Geographical Service trying to prevent a repeat of the San Francisco Earthquake need to renounce Irish citizenship if he had it in order to prevent prosecution?

NTM

kowloon

Was the origin of all this not something to do with the Greens wanting all nuclear research, and by extension, nuclear power, banned?

Riskymove

kowloon wrote: »

Was the origin of all this not something to do with the Greens wanting all nuclear research, and by extension, nuclear power, banned?

No

The origin is that all member states have to ratify the UN IAEA Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

This bit of legislation will do that, its unlikely to ever be fully ratified by Nuclear Power States.

As Manic Moran says if anyone did blow up a bomb there are plenty of laws like murder, terrorism, damage etc. The fact that the offence of actually causing an explosion is minor means nothing.

Anyway its really aimed at States not developing nuclear weapons through testing, not someone carrying out an attack