The Government has launched an international case against the United Kingdom claiming it has violated the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea by authorising the MOX nuclear fuel production plant at Sellafield.
Announcing the move last night the Minister of State, Mr Joe Jacob, accused the British government of violating "numerous provisions" of the UN convention. It had failed in its obligations to consult Ireland, to assess the plant's impact on the environment and to protect the marine environment, he said. The Government formally served legal documents on the UK government on Thursday.
The legal action follows years of reluctance to do so, despite long standing concerns over the operation of the Sellafield plant just 60 miles from Dublin. The change of attitude follows intense anger at the British decision this month to proceed with the new MOX (mixed oxide) fuel production plant, which would lead to the regular shipment of dangerous material through the Irish Sea.
The heightened terrorist threat since September 11th also contributed to tipping the scales. The MOX plant is designed to process nuclear reactor fuel from uranium and plutonium imported from a large number of countries.
The Government is seeking an injunction preventing the plant from starting operations, and a full hearing then to determine the plant's future. It hopes to obtain the injunction within a fortnight, unless Britain agrees to postpone activating the plant pending the full hearing, which would not reach a conclusion until the end of next year at the earliest.
Lawyers representing Ireland will seek the injunction on November 9th in Hamburg, where the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea sits.
Ireland yesterday nominated the Whewell Professor of International Law at Cambridge University, Prof James Crawford SC, as a member of the arbitration tribunal. Prof Crawford, an Australian, has been involved in many high profile international cases concerning marine and nuclear pollution matters.
At the five-member arbitration tribunal, according to Mr Jacob, Ireland will accuse the UK of failing to take adequate measures to prevent pollution from the plant; to assess properly the risk of terrorist attack; to prepare a plan to respond to such an attack; to co-operate with Ireland and share information and to carry out a full environmental impact assessment.
Ireland will seek a full environmental impact assessment, proof that the plant will bring no further radioactive pollution and an agreed British/Irish strategy to prevent terrorist attacks or to respond to any terrorist attacks
The international action will take place in parallel with arbitration proceedings started in June in under the OSPAR convention, which are intended to obtain certain information on the MOX plant which the British government has refused to provide. The Government is also drafting papers with a view to taking a separate case against the UK in the European Court, claiming it is in breach of the Euratom Treaty.