Nuclear go-ahead 'could sour Anglo-Irish relations'

British plans to commission the mixed oxide (MOX) facility at the Sellafield nuclear waste reprocessing facility in Cumbria were today claimed to have the potential for souring Anglo-Irish relations.

The charge was made in Bournemouth - where politicians from Britain and Ireland today opened a two-day conference - after the announcement of the Law of the Sea Tribunal ruling against Ireland’s bid to block the MOX project.

Senator Joe Costello, a Dublin delegate at the British-Irish Interparliamentary Body conference, said many people in Ireland regarded the development in Sellafield as ‘‘an unfriendly act by the British government against Ireland.’’

Regretting today’s decision by the tribunal in Hamburg, Germany, he added: ‘‘That is the perspective in which this has to be addressed it could sour relations between the two governments.’’

Former cabinet minister Michael O’Kennedy, the joint chairman of the inter-parliamentary body, which is made up of 25 members of each of the British and Irish parliaments and also incorporated representatives from the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland assemblies, and the Isle of Man and Channel Island parliaments, stressed that there still had to be a full Law of the Sea hearing of the Dublin case, probably early next year.

The Sellafield issue - which exposed major differences between the London and Dublin governments at a prime ministerial summit last Friday - was set to feature prominently on the agenda for the BIIB session ahead of today’s Hamburg ruling.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed to differ on the issue when it came up for discussion during bi-lateral talks in Dublin last week at the end of a meeting of the British-Irish Council, one of the key bodies to emerge from the 1998 Good Friday agreement on Northern Ireland.

The Government has pledged to continue their fight to force the closure of Sellafield, and to halt the scheduled recommissioning of the MOX plant.

Dublin has stepped up its opposition to the concept by citing fears of a terrorist strike following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington and subsequent contamination threats.

Last month, Ireland asked the Hamburg tribunal to order immediate suspension of the British decision pending conclusion of the arbitration.

But the tribunal today said ‘‘the urgency of the situation did not require the prescription of the provisional measures as requested by Ireland.’’

Attorney General Michael McDowell told a two day hearing last month in Hamburg that the question was about protecting the Irish Sea from further radioactive pollution.

The British government argued in a written submission that the court lacked jurisdiction in the matter.

In its ruling, the tribunal noted that the duty to cooperate was ‘‘a fundamental principle in the prevention of pollution of the marine environment’’.

It ordered Ireland and Britain to start consultations immediately in which they would exchange information on the possible consequences to the Irish Sea of the MOX plant opening and ‘‘devise, as appropriate, measures to prevent pollution of the marine environment which might result from the operation of the MOX plant’’.