The Irish Government is taking the British to court today in an effort to stop the controversial production and transportation of dangerous MOX nuclear fuel. The transport of a consignment from Japan last month caused uproar in the Republic.
Greenpeace today reacted with anger to revelations in the Norwegian press that the Sellafield nuclear plant plans to discharge large amounts of a notorious radioactive substance into the Irish Sea this week (1).
Discharges of Technetium 99 have been hugely controversial, particularly in Norway and Ireland, with contamination from the radioactive chemical found on the coasts of both countries. Lobsters are regularly found off Sellafield with levels of Technetium 99 which breach the levels set by the European Community for intervention following a nuclear accident [2]. It will take between two to three years for this week's releases to reach the Norwegian coast.
Greenpeace has caught up with a deadly cargo of plutonium off South African waters and mounted a high-seas protest, just days before the start of the Earth Summit in Johannesburg.
Despite attempts by the two armed vessels to evade public scrutiny by altering course, the Greenpeace ship, MV Esperanza, located them late Sunday night and radioed an intention to peacefully protest, but received no reply.
Commenting on the Environment Agency's Proposals (1) for Future Sellafield Regulation, Greenpeace today described them as grossly inadequate. Greenpeace campaigner, Pete Roche, said, "Despite all the talk of significant reductions in discharge limits, the actual radioactivity going into the Irish Sea and our atmosphere is likely to double over the next few years".
Greenpeace has condemned the Government and British Nuclear Fuels for the introduction of plutonium into the controversial Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP) earlier today. The decision to proceed with loading of the lethal nuclear material will increase environmental pollution from the Sellafield site and increase international security risks, including nuclear terrorism and proliferation of nuclear weapons. Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth have mounted a range of legal challenges in an effort to prevent the plant from opening. The Irish Government currently has two international legal cases on-going against the UK government.
Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have overturned an important part of last month's controversial High Court ruling that the Government had lawfully given the Sellafield Mixed Oxide (MOX) plant the green light. (1) But the MOX plant can still open, despite the fact that it will never recover its costs and that it represents a serious threat to public safety.
The United Nations International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea issued a significant ruling on the case brought by the Irish government against the UK Government over the controversial Sellafield nuclear complex. The Tribunal, made up of 21 judges, issued a unanimous ruling that puts pressure on the UK to stop the operation a new plutonium fuel manufacturing facility, the Sellafield MOX Plant (SMP).
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.
