Go-ahead for Sellafield MOX Plant - by Ciarán Cuffe, published in the Irish Independent 10th December 2001

“Co-operate and consult” was the message for the UK and Irish Governments from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg yesterday.  The twenty four-page judgement appears to leave open a window for the Irish Government to pursue their case against the controversial MOX Plant. Both countries will have to report to an arbitration tribunal in the New Year.

This new plant at Sellafield in Cumbria is designed to reprocess spent nuclear fuel into a new fuel, known as mixed oxide fuel, or MOX. The existing THORP Plant takes spent nuclear fuel rods from plants around the world. It dissolves them in a bath of nitric acid and produces uranium, plutonium and highly radioactive waste. The uranium is turned into a powdered form, processed into fuel pellets and sent back for use in nuclear reactors. The plutonium can be combined with uranium and turned into new MOX fuel rods. Each six-gram pellet holds the equivalent energy of one tonne of coal and would be deadly if it fell into the wrong hands. Plutonium is a major ingredient of nuclear weapons. British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) currently processes spent nuclear fuel from nine countries: the UK, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands Canada and Italy. BNFL say they have £12 Billion worth of orders on their books.

Environmentalists point out that the Irish Sea is already the most radioactive water body in the world, and that the commissioning of the plant would increase risks for all. Although levels of radioactivity in the Irish Sea have decreased since the early days of Sellafield / Windscale there are fears that a mishap in the MOX plant could cause a catastrophe. The events of September 11th have shown just how vulnerable nuclear plants could be to a terrorist attack. BNFL states that shipments of the MOX fuel will be guarded by police carrying guns, gas masks and grenades this does not reassure critics. In a Nightmare scenario the ship carrying the fuel could be taken over as it travels down the Irish Sea with its toxic load. An although the UK Government states that the plant itself will be guarded against air attacks, it would be hard to protect the plant from a pilot who wishes to sacrifice their life.

The Irish Government based their case concerning the MOX plant on the international movements of radioactive materials, and the protection of the marine environment of the Irish Sea. Both the UK and Ireland signed up to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.  This allowed the Hamburg based Tribunal to consider the case. Given the urgency of the situation they made an interim report. They stated “prudence and caution require that Ireland and the United Kingdom cooperate in exchanging information concerning risks or effects of the operation of the MOX plant and in devising ways to deal with them, as appropriate”. Both countries have to report on their progress by 17 December 2001. They will have to exchange information concerning the risks or effects of the operation of the MOX plant and in devising ways to deal with them, as appropriate.

The Tribunal also called for the setting up of an arbitration tribunal under the Convention that will examine the issues in more detail. Prior to the outcome of the full Tribunal there are to be no additional marine transports of radioactive material either to or from Sellafield until summer 2002. This stalemate should at least ensure that the UK Government listens carefully to what the Irish side has to say. It is significant that the judges unanimously rejected UK claims that the Law of the Sea Convention Tribunal did not have jurisdiction over the case. The Tribunal has established the right of states threatened by pollution from transport shipments to be consulted. Greenpeace feel that this is a major step forward for the rights of states opposed to the transport of nuclear material, including high-level waste and plutonium MOX fuel.

In a dissenting opinion Judge Székely queried whether the UK could proceed with commissioning the plant prior to assessing the risk in detail. He felt that a start-up could be seen as disregarding the “prudence and caution” that the Tribunal required. The projected commissioning of the MOX plant is planned for 20 December 2001. It seems that all those connected with the case will have a busy time ahead before they can wind down for Christmas.

Meanwhile Greenpeace and the Friends of the Earth UK are expected to hear within days the result of a separate lawsuit against the UK government's decision to authorize the MOX plant.  The Court of Appeal in London heard the case last week. The directors of BNFL certainly have a busy month ahead. ENDS