Sellafield and its new Mox reprocessing facility should be shut down. By sanctioning a new phase of nuclear reprocessing there, the British Government has made nonsense of last Tuesday's world-view statement by the British Prime Minister when he said the lesson of the financial markets, climate change, international terrorism, nuclear proliferation and world trade was that "our self-interest and our mutual interests are today inextricably woven together".
Where were mutual interests accorded a place in this decision? For the past three years, five Nordic countries - Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden - have been seeking the closure of Sellafield under the OSPAR Convention, which requires all 15 member-states, including Britain, "to take all possible steps to prevent and eliminate marine pollution".
They took this aggressive stance because studies had shown that currents brought Irish Sea radioactivity into their most important fishing grounds. Ireland, as an understanding and reasonable neighbour, merely requested that discharges from the Sellafield plant be reduced gradually to "close to zero". But Mr Joe Jacob, Minister of State with responsibility for nuclear matters had specifically asked the British Government to postpone a decision on commissioning a new Mox reprocessing plant there, pending the outcome of OSPAR arbitration.
The Cabinet is expected to sanction a legal challenge to the British Government's decision before the European Court of Justice next week. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will raise the matter directly with Mr Tony Blair at an early date. Because the £460 million Mox Plant will not become fully operational for a number of months, there is time for a British rethink. The dreadful record of public deceit and radioactive contamination involving the Sellafield/Windscale complex requires the plant to be shut down.
The decision to commission the MOX plant, after a five year delay, is said to have been based on an assessment that it would cost more to mothball it than to operate it. Such an analysis is not good enough. The Government engaged in reasonable, low-key, political representations for four years and was ignored. It is time to become more assertive.