Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace go to Court of Appeal
Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth will now take their battle to stop the MOX plant at Sellafield to the Court of Appeal. The move follows last week's ruling by Mr Justice Collins that the Government hadn't acted unlawfully in giving the highly controversial plutonium fuel plant the green light. The Appeal will be heard on 27 and 28 November.
Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace will argue that the costs of building a new nuclear plant must be taken into account when calculating whether a new practice is economically justified. The Government and BNFL had argued that the costs of construction should normally be included in the calculations, but if they had already been spent they should be treated as irrelevant. In a suprising and controversial judgement, Mr Justice Collins decided that because such costs would vary from site to site they should never be included in such calculations.
As a result of the Judge's reasoning BNFL could apply for authorisation for a new practice stating that it would generate a net future income of say £00 million. The practice would be treated as economically justified even if it required building a £00 million plant, and would therefore in reality lose £00 million.
The MOX plant faces a number of other legal challenges. On Monday 3 December the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea [ITLOS] is expected to rule on an application from the Irish Government for an injunction to prevent the MOX plant going ahead before ITLOS has had the opportunity to consider the case fully.
Further information:
Contact:
Friends of the Earth Press Office 020 7566 1649 or
Greenpeace Press Office 020 7865 8255
