Govt steps up legal fight over Sellafield

The Government has pledged to step up a legal challenge to the planned new reprocessing facility at Sellafield.

Joe Jacobs, the minister with responsibility for nuclear safety, said Britain’s decision to approve the commissioning of the plant in Cumbria yesterday

"defied logic in the current climate of international terrorist threats".

He then said that in the light of the events of September 11 in America, he found it "difficult to comprehend the decision", adding: "I would have expected a new and enlightened focus on safety and exposure to risk."

Mr Jacobs said the proposed plant was already the subject of arbitration proceedings by Ireland against the United Kingdom and the Government had specifically asked that there should be no decision to proceed while the process continued.

He declared: "This decision is completely contrary to that request. The next step as far as we are concerned is to pursue our legal options."

The British Government said the long-awaited decision for the manufacture of mixed oxide (MOX) fuel at Sellafield was "justified" in accordance with the requirements of European Community law.

But the move sparked immediate criticism from environmental, anti-nuclear and local residents’ groups, who warned it would make the world a less safe place, and increase the terrorist threat.

Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace claimed the decision was unlawful and were seeking urgent legal advice.

The MOX plant was completed in 1996 but has lain idle since then.

It was intended to turn spent plutonium and uranium into usable fuel but following financial concerns and in the wake of a data falsification incident, the commercial go-ahead for the plant was withheld.