Archived press release

Government faces legal challenge over nuke plant

24 May 2001

Friends of the Earth (FOE) is today taking the UK Government to the High Court over state-owned British Nuclear Fuels plc's (BNFL) plans to start operations at the Sellafield Mixed Oxide Plant (SMP) [1] in Cumbria.

Friends of the Earth believes that the Deputy Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health have acted unlawfully, by deliberately restricting the scope of the final public consultation exercise , which ended yesterday. This morning FOE lodged papers at the High Court applying for a Judicial Review over Government decisions to:

• skew the economic 'benefits' of the scheme by disregarding the £482 million of taxpayers money spent so far, mostly on constructing the plant;
  
• withhold from the public an independent official report into the plant's economic viability[2].

The Mixed Oxide Plant was completed four years ago to produce a new form of reactor fuel called MOX. Around 10% of the fuel is plutonium, and there are fears that it could be used for making nuclear weapons. Despite BNFL's enthusiasm to start, the order book remains almost empty, with contracts having been secured for less than 10 % of capacity. British Energy, the UK's privatised nuclear generator, has refused to use MOX.

Mark Johnston, Nuclear Campaigner at Friends of the Earth said:
“We are asking the courts to ensure that Ministers act lawfully and responsibly in their approach to the long-term management of plutonium. The fact that Government is the sole owner of the company does not permit it to disregard the law in order to allow BNFL to start making MOX.

“The growing stockpile of separated plutonium is a worldwide embarrassment for the nuclear industry. It only exists because of the continuing yet unnecessary reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. The 'MOX option' for plutonium is both expensive and misguided.

Peter Roderick, Legal Adviser at Friends of the Earth said:

“Radiological protection law is intended to protect the environment and public health. New facilities can only be permitted if the economic benefits outweigh detriments. This balancing judgement must include all relevant costs, including the cost of constructing the plant. It is quite wrong for Ministers to ignore construction costs and skew the analysis. It is also unfair and unjust to deny interested parties access to the critical information on which Ministers will take their decision.”

This legal challenge is supported by Greenpeace.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• [1] Mixed Oxide fuel or 'MOX' is not a commercially priced fuel for nuclear reactor operators. It is an option that is being considered only by some of those nuclear operators, all overseas, who are tied to long-term reprocessing contracts at Sellafield. MOX is essentially a poor waste management technique disguised as fuel manufacture so much so that the UK's only privatised nuclear generator,British Energy, has refused to use it.
  
  
• The manufacture of mixed oxide or 'MOX' combines uranium and plutonium into a fuel that can be used in some nuclear power stations. Plutonium does not occur naturally but is produced when conventional uranium fuel is burned in a nuclear reactor. Some nuclear operators send their spent fuel for 'reprocessing' during which the constituent parts - uranium, plutonium and other highly radioactive wastes - are separated using a chemical process.
  
  
• The rationale for the reprocessing of spent fuel was formed in the early days of the nuclear age when it was thought that uranium would be scarce and therefore expensive. Uranium today is however relatively abundant and cheap. Furthermore, it is also much less expensive to store spent nuclear fuel than to separate it by reprocessing. The combination of low raw uranium costs and the lower cost option to store spent fuel have combined to destroy the rationale for reprocessing. Sellafield THORP reprocessing plant was approved in 1977 and built on the basis of 'cash in advance' contracts. Many nuclear operators are now seeking to renegotiate or end these contracts with BNFL.
  
  [2] The Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) commissioned Arthur D Little Consultants (ADL) to undertake an independent evaluation of the economic case for SMP last month(DETR Press Notice 23 April 2001). This work has run in parallel with an eight week public consultation exercise which closed yesterday (23 May 2001). Ministers have said they will not be subjecting the ADL report to public scrutiny before they take their decision on SMP. This is despite already having set a precedent by releasing earlier economic reports (by PA Consulting) in 1998 and 1999. FOE maintains that DETR is acting unlawfully by preventing interested parties from commenting on the ADL analysis prior to Ministers taking a decision.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust