Fight to shut Sellafield continues, vows minister

The Government will continue to pursue every diplomatic and legal avenue to have the Sellafield nuclear power plant shut down, Environment Minister Dick Roche insisted today.

As an advisor to the European Court of Justice claimed Ireland flouted EU rules by taking the UK to a United Nations tribunal over alleged pollution, Mr Roche pledged to keep up the fight to have the controversial facility closed.

“The reality of the situation is that the Sellafield plant raises significant environmental and other issues for Ireland,” the minister said.

Mr Roche noted that legal action taken to date had led to new and improved information exchange and co-operation between Ireland and the UK.

And he warned: “For this reason, the Government has pursued and will continue to pursue every diplomatic and legal option open to it at all international for a in pursuit of our long-standing policy to secure the safe and orderly closure of the plant.

“It is our duty and our obligation to the people of Ireland to pursue these avenues even if the outcome may be uncertain.”

Sellafield’s controversial mixed oxide plant (MOX) recycles plutonium from spent nuclear fuel from all over the world.

Ireland took its complaints over MOX to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, citing environmental and health fears over emissions and complaining the UK had failed to give an assessment of the plant’s economic viability.

Ireland had argued that the MOX facility was in breach of the UK’s legal obligations under UNCLOS.

But in advice to the European Court of Justice the Advocate General Miguel Poiares Maduro said Ireland would be in breach of EU rules if it continued with its case against the UK.

He insisted Ireland should have pursued the matter through EU institutions.

In a ruling expected near the end of this year, the European Court of Justice is likely to follow the advice of the Advocate General, as it does in almost 80% of cases.

But Mr Roche said: “If the [European] Court’s exclusive jurisdiction in the issues raised by Ireland is ultimately confirmed by the European Court of Justice in its final ruling in this case, the Irish Government will expect the Commission to exercise its competence robustly in respect of the continued operation of the Sellafield Plant, a situation which has clearly not been the case to date.”

The advice is a huge setback to environmental campaigners and the Government’s own fight to remove the threat of radioactive pollution.

Ciaran Cuffe, Green Party environment spokesman, said it was a case of back to square one in the fight to have the plant closed.

But he warned campaigners were running out of options.

“The problem is that the Commission favours nuclear power and will be reluctant to rap the UK Government on the fingers over the dangers posed by Sellafield,” Mr Cuffe said.

Proinsias De Rossa, Labour Party MEP for Dublin, said the legal action was unnecessary.

“While, technically, Ireland was wrong, I am disappointed that the Commission took this unnecessary legal action in the first place, particularly in view of its own inaction on the matter,” Mr De Rossa