Irish greens fight UK nuclear plan in court
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Version 0 of 1. One of Ireland's leading environmental groups is taking legal action against the British government, claiming that it has failed to consult the Irish people on its next generation of nuclear power stations, which it says could have a big impact on Irish citizens' lives if there are leaks or accidents. The government has given approval for the £14bn Hinkley Point C plant, to be built by the French energy company EDF, which operates eight of Britain's existing nuclear power stations. The new plant will produce around 7% of the UK's electricity. An Taisce, Ireland's equivalent of the National Trust, will go to the high court in London in December to seek a judicial review challenging the legality of the decision by Ed Davey, the energy secretary, to grant permission to build the plant, which will be 150 miles from the Irish coast. The group is questioning whether the development complies with both the EU's Environmental Impact Assessment directive and the UK's own regulations on trans-boundary impacts and consultation. A spokesman for An Taisce denied that the move was a PR stunt that had little chance of success, pointing out that, as a charity, it had a duty to think hard before taking legal action. "Despite the nuclear power plant being nearer to the coast of Ireland than it is to Leeds, the UK decided not to consult with the Irish public about the decision before it granted consent in March," An Taisce said in a statement. "The first time many Irish people learned about the nuclear power plant proposal was when the decision was announced." Greenpeace has launched a separate legal challenge on the grounds that the government has not said where it will deposit the plant's nuclear waste. In February, Cumbria county council withdrew from the process to find a long-term storage site for the UK's spent nuclear fuel, leaving the government without a location for the new waste. The United Nations is also taking a close interest in the plant's development in response to concerns raised by green parties in several European countries which complain that the UK has failed to consult adequately. A UN committee will examine whether the plant poses environmental threats that fail to respect national borders. In addition, the European commission must decide whether the UK is allowed to offer nuclear power consortiums an agreed "strike price" for their electricity, which critics say equates to a subsidy and is anti-competitive. It is understood that the UK will buy electricity from Hinkley C at £93 per megawatt-hour – double the current wholesale price. Hinkley Point is seen as a test case that will set a precedent for other EU states, such as Poland and the Czech Republic, which are keen to expand their nuclear power programmes. After recent announcements on energy price rises, the government is desperate to press on with nuclear plant construction as it seeks to diversify the UK's power supplies. The chancellor, George Osborne, was in China last week wooing power companies to take stakes in the UK's new nuclear plants. Success in obtaining a judicial review could delay construction of Hinkley and scare off investors. The Department of Energy has said it is not expecting any delay to the project and insists that the plant's construction has taken "full account of applicable EU and other international law". Irish governments have in the past asked London to close the nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield in Cumbria over concerns about pollution of the Irish Sea and fears that an accident could harm Ireland's environment severely. A request by Dublin at a UN tribunal for the plant's closure was rejected. An Taisce admitted that it saw the judicial review as being about more than Hinkley Point C. The charity said the court's decision was important "not only in respect of this nuclear power plant, but also [for] the manner in which other decisions will be treated, including the nuclear plant proposed for Anglesey, which is even closer to Ireland and in an area prone to earthquakes". News of potential legal action will add to concerns about costs and delays affecting the rollout of the UK's nuclear programme. Last week the National Audit Office published a rexport that found there had been significant delay and cost escalation to 12 of the 14 large projects at Sellafield. The schedules of seven projects in the planning phase had been put back 57 months and costs had risen by £601m since the projects had started, the NAO found. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |