State demands Sellafield reports from Britain

THE Government begins legal action today to demand full disclosure by Britain of top secret documents on the Sellafield nuclear fuel manufacturing plant.

In a landmark challenge at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague, Netherlands, Ireland is to argue the documents are essential in assessing the safety and economic rationale of the MOX nuclear fuel manufacturing plant at Sellafield.

The Government is opposed to operation of the plant, located just across the Irish Sea in Cumbria, as it fears any nuclear fall-out from it will devastate Ireland.

In its legal challenge Dublin will point out that substantial sections in two British key reports were blacked out before they were turned over to the Irish Government.. One report was commissioned by the UK Environment Agency and the other by economic consultants to the British cabinet.

Ireland will argue international agreements require Britain be open with the information it holds and allow that information to be subjected to independent evaluation.

The Irish legal team will invoke two international agreements: the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the Convention for Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR).

It will be the first time the OSPAR Convention, which only became active in 1998, will be used in such a challenge.

A week has been set aside for the hearing at which Ireland's case will be presented by Attorney-General Rory Brady; Eoin Fitzsimons SC, and Phillipe Sands, Professor of International Law at London University. The case will be considered by a three-man tribunal composed of Ireland's nominee, London-based Australian QC Gavan Griffith; Britain's nominee, Lord Michael Mustill; and the agreed chair, Professor Michael Reisman. They are expected to take several months to reach a decision.

Britain will claim the information withheld is commercially sensitive. Ireland will argue MOX has no real competitors and thus no one from whom to keep secrets. And Ireland will argue a precedent exists for putting all information into the public domain. It claims this was done with the Thorp reprocessing plant which British Nuclear Fuels Ltd (BNFL) runs in tandem with MOX.

A spokesman for the Department of the Environment said the case is an important step toward the long-term goal of shutting down Sellafield.

"To enable us to have a full and informed debate, we must have all the information.

"If they (the reports) don't help our case, we're wondering why Britain has blacked-out sections."