The British government has rejected the Government’s criticism of the MOX plant at Sellafield and said Ireland would never have been satisfied unless they had refused authorisation for the plant altogether.
The Irish Government wants the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, a United Nations body, to issue injunctions to prevent the start of operations at the mixed oxide (MOX) fuel plant and to stop ships transporting nuclear material to and from it pending arbitration.
Making the initial response on behalf of the British government this morning, Lord Goldsmith QC told the tribunal Ireland had put forward its case against the plant based on four points; the Sellafield site having a harmful impact on the Irish Sea, having a poor safety record, that the MOX plant will lead to discharges into the marine environment and that it is vulnerable to accidents.
He rejected all of these. Lord Goldsmith said discharges into the Irish Sea had reduced significantly over the last two decades and questioned the veracity of the Irish evidence that the Irish Sea was one of the most radioactive in the world.
Lord Goldsmith said the discharges were "infinitesimally small".
"Ireland has had eight years to query these figures or develop some argument as to how such tiny discharges could cause serious harm to the environment of the Irish Sea. It has done neither."
Regarding issues of safety raised by the Government Lord Goldsmith said: "In all what Ireland did yesterday was to raise a spectre of danger and threat, no scientific analysis, no scientific data, no scientific opinion is brought into play to support this spectre."
He said the threat of a terrorist attack engaged the concern of all and said there were "various facets of security" at the Sellafield site.
"The United Kingdom of course takes its responsibilities in this field extremely seriously. Major centres of population in the United Kingdom are a good deal closer to Sellafield that those in Ireland. It is a little provocative, if I may say so, for Ireland to suggest that because the United Kingdom has not chosen to initiate confidential discussions with Ireland on this matter, the United Kingdom is somehow lax about it."
Lord Goldsmith also spoke about the financial cost if Ireland’s challenge were to be successful: "If the United Kingdom were restrained from authorising the operation of the MOX plant, in advance of any finding that such operation entailed an infringement of rights pertaining to Ireland, real injury would be sustained. I can be quite clear. I am talking about really serious financial injury."
The tribunal will give its findings on December 9th.