Irish application on MOX plant starts today

The Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, will lead the Government's legal team today in an application for an injunction to prevent the MOX fuel production plant at Sellafield from going into operation next month.

At the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, the team will also call for a stop to shipments in and around the Irish Sea of radioactive materials associated with the MOX plant. The team will accuse the British government of failing to take adequate measures to prevent pollution from the plant, thereby breaching provisions of the UN Convention for the Law of the Sea.

The 17-part convention establishes a legal framework to regulate all ocean space and related disputes.

A five-member tribunal will consider a Government request for an injunction to prevent the plant from starting operations. This injunction would be binding until a full hearing, not expected to reach a conclusion until the end of next year at the earliest.

The MOX plant is designed to produce mixed oxide fuel pellets for nuclear reactors by combining uranium with plutonium. Built in 1996, the plant was last month given British government permission to go into operation on December 20th. It will produce both solid and liquid wastes, some of which would be discharged into the Irish Sea.

Central to the case is likely to be article 194 of the convention which deals with "the release of toxic, harmful or noxious substances" into the sea from "land-based sources". It obliges states to ensure that pollution arising from activities under their control "does not spread beyond the areas where they exercise sovereign rights".

Article 210 of the convention establishes the right of states to "permit, regulate and control" dumping of waste into the sea, but this must be done "after due consideration of the matter with other states which, by reason of their geographical situation, may be adversely affected thereby".

In its submission today, the Irish legal team will also accuse Britain of not properly assessing the risk of terrorist attack on the Sellafield plant. The Government will call for a British-Irish strategy to prevent terrorist attacks or to respond to any terrorist attacks.

The British government will present its preliminary submission tomorrow.