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.
BNFL and it's subsidiary Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd, owns 7 ships which transport nuclear waste fuel and other nuclear materials, including plutonium, around the globe. The ships carry nuclear waste fuel from BNFL's overseas customers in Japan, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands to its notorious Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria. The ships also carry nuclear waste fuel from the same overseas customers to the French version of Sellafield, La Hague.
Greenpeace today published aerial photographs of British Nuclear Fuel's Sellafield nuclear complex in Cumbria to show people the sheer scale and range of nuclear activities that go on there. The pictures pin-point many of the dangerous processes that take place at the plant, which pollute the environment and result in highly radioactive material being transported across the UK. These include the Calder Hall reactor, the THORP plutonium reprocessing facility (one of the biggest buildings in Europe) and the controversial new MOX fuel plant which the Government hopes to open in December.
Greenpeace will risk imprisonment to keep public informed of secret nuclear ships
Greenpeace published today images and details from the surveillance of a BNFL ship in North Scotland loading a consignment of weapons-usable plutonium.
Under the government's proposed Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act, the information contained in this briefing would be illegal. The proposed Act contains measures to stop the publication of information on nuclear technologies, nuclear sites and the transport of nuclear materials. Greenpeace, however, believes that people have a right to know about the nuclear industry and the risks that it imposes on them. We will continue to publish information that is in the public interest whether or not the Act becomes law.
Greenpeace today promised to keep telling the public about the dangers of the nuclear industry despite proposed legislation that would make this illegal and inflict a prison sentence of up to seven years for offenders. Today (Monday 19th) is the second reading of the Government's Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Bill, which contains measures to stop people publishing information on nuclear technologies, nuclear sites and the transport of nuclear materials (1). If the Bill became law it would impact on both journalists and campaign groups.
Posted by bex — 19 November 2001 at 9:00am
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Comments
MV Arneb
Greenpeace is appalled that the British government thinks that the true facts about the nuclear industry should be kept secret from the general public. We are opposed to the nuclear industry and believe that the issues surrounding the industry should be openly and actively discussed so that the general public can make their own, informed, decisions. Millions of pounds of government subsidy continue to prop up this industry, and it is only right that taxpayers have a right to know the facts.
Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth vow to fight on as the controversial MOX plant faces three more court challenges
A High Court Judge today ruled that the Government's recent decision to give British Nuclear Fuels Ltd the go-ahead for the MOX plant at Sellafield was not unlawful under European Law. Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace had made the case that the Government had wrongly disregarded the £70 million it cost to build the plant when giving the economic justification under EU law (1). In a controversial judgement, Mr Justice Collins ruled that the costs of setting up a new nuclear plant should not be weighed in the balance of economic costs and benefits when deciding whether any nuclear practice is economically justified. Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth will consider whether to appeal Mr Justice Collins' decision.
