Environmental pressure groups Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have joined forces in an attempt to block the new £470m Sellafield MOX Plant from starting production of a mixed plutonium and uranium oxide fuel.
The challenge is being sped through the courts, ahead of plans by British Nuclear Fuels Ltd to take irreversible implementation steps as early as 2 December 2001, with the groups disputing the government decision to approve the new practice of producing the fuel known as MOX fuel.
They claim that the government was wrong to decide that the new practice was justifiable under European law, and argue that it fails to meet the justification test set out in a European Union Basic Safety Standards Directive.
The test requires that member states should ensure that all new types of practice resulting in ionizing radiation are justified in advance by their economic, social or other benefits in relation to the health detriment they may cause.
Both Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth dispute that this has been done, claiming that the government cannot demonstrate an economic justification for the plant, because there is insufficient evidence that potential customers will materialise.
Opening the case for the environmentalists at the High Court, Lord Lester said that the cost of the new plant, as at June 2001, stood at £470m, adding that the government had failed to take these costs into account when considering the economic test.
The Irish government has recently launched a separate legal challenge to the plant, and Norway is also considering legal moves.
The hearing continues.
PLS News 9/11/01
