The governments on both sides of the Irish Sea have taken comfort from the Sellafield decisions announced yesterday by the tribunal set up under the OSPAR Convention.
The tribunal, which is based in The Hague, decided unanimously that it does have jurisdiction over the dispute; the United Kingdom had argued strongly to the contrary. However, at the same time, the tribunal reached a majority decision that Ireland's claim for commercial information concerning the operation of the MOX reprocessing plant does not fall within the terms of reference of the convention.
The tribunal's decisions come just a week after the UN arbitration court, the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, made provisional orders that both governments exchange information on nuclear safety. It also said that the UK must abide by commitments given two years ago that no decision to authorise further reprocessing at Sellafield's THORP plant be made without consulting the Irish Government beforehand. The UN court will hold full hearings on Ireland's case against Sellafield towards the end of the year, but the omens are not all positive. It made it clear that the Irish Government has yet to prove that Sellafield poses a serious risk to Ireland's rights such as would justify measures against it.
The Government, however, can take some satisfaction from these developments. It has successfully dragged the UK government on to the stage of international tribunals, which is the last place it would wish to defend its nuclear reprocessing programme. It had hoped that the OSPAR Convention, which exists to protect the marine environment of the north-east Atlantic, would decide that it had no jurisdiction over the dispute. The OSPAR decision that it has jurisdiction leaves the door open for Ireland to initiate further cases which perhaps might press a narrower argument.
The escalation of the campaign should also have the benefit of encouraging other affected countries such as Denmark and Norway to intensify their own campaigns, fully conscious as they are of the marine damage that Sellafield's emissions are capable of.
The UK is in thrall to nuclear power. It provides over a quarter of its electricity and it will be expected to make a greater contribution as the energy crisis kicks in. The UK's potential for renewable energy is virtually ignored. Greater generation of nuclear power means more nuclear waste to be dealt with. British Nuclear Fuels can be relied upon to seek to discharge even greater levels of nuclear waste into the Irish Sea. The Government's campaign will be long and difficult, but it will be worthwhile.