Irish set to take nuclear waste fight to Europe
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The Irish government yesterday indicated that it was prepared to pursue Britain through the European and international courts in order to prevent the dumping of nuclear waste beneath the coast of west Cumbria.
In an unprecedented move, Emmet Stagg, Ireland's minister of state for energy, registered Irish fears in a personal appearance at the public inquiry into UK Nirex's plan for a pounds 195m underground laboratory which will test to establish that the rocks are safe enough to hold radioactive waste.
The state-owned nuclear- waste company wants to prove the case for a pounds 2.5bn repository 650 metres deep to take radioactive material from British Nuclear Fuel's Sellafield reprocessing plant on the edge of the Irish Sea.
No minister of a foreign government has ever appeared at a local planning inquiry in Britain, and the arrival of Mr Stagg and his entourage in Mercedes limousines caused quite a stir in the former mining community of Cleator Moor, Cumbria. But Mr Stagg said he needed to "highlight the concern of his government at a project that will add to the pollution of the Irish Sea", adding: "Any radioactive contamination of the Irish Sea simply is not acceptable."
Mr Stagg released the text of a letter sent to the European Commission complaining of breaches of community law by Nirex. Whether Dublin pursues its objections through to the European Court of Justice will depend on the recommendation of the inspector, Chris McDonald, and the ultimate decision by John Gummer, Secretary of State for Environment.
The Irish contend that the Environmental Impact Statement provided by Nirex is deficient in confining itself to the interim underground laboratory rather than the ultimate full waste dump.
Most of the Irish case was presented by Eli Lauterpacht QC, a professor of international law, who described the laboratory project as a pounds 500m "Trojan horse". The figure included some pounds 240m already spent on investigations.
The professor said the burden lay with Nirex, and ultimately the British Government, to show there would be no contamination. Nirex's position was "rather the reverse", he said. "The Irish Sea is seen as a safety device to disperse and dilute the radioactive substances."
After listening to the Irish case, Tom Curtin, head of corporate communications at Nirex, said that the company believed it had met all the requirements of UK and international law. "Much of the Irish case seems to be based on the presumption that the laboratory is a waste dump, which it is not. It is a stand-alone research facility," he insisted. "We can't know all the answers until we get down there."
The inquiry has been running since 5 September and is due to finish early in February.
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