The Irish Government will tomorrow bring Britain before an international arbitration court for allegedly failing to protect the marine environment by backing a plutonium plant at Sellafield.
The British government will appear before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in a case expected to last three weeks.
It is charged with violating the United Nations Law of the Sea over its decision to open the British Nuclear Fuels-operated plutonium reprocessing plant in Cumbria.
Ireland claims the plant pollutes the Irish Sea through the discharge of radioactive materials. The Government claims Britain has failed to protect the marine environment and to reduce and eliminate radioactive discharges from the Sellafield site.
Mr Duncan Currie, a lawyer for international environmental lobby group Greenpeace, said this is a landmark case in holding large nuclear powers to account under international law.
Mr Shaun Burnie of Greenpeace International in The Hague said Ireland was to be congratulated for bringing the case and that the reprocessing plant should be closed "before it's too late".
Last month, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, said the Government would not let up in its efforts to close the plant and would continue to use every diplomatic and political channel to see an end to activities there.