Umweltverbrechen multinationaler Konzerne - Greenpeace

Legal, public action by
those concerned
Government has not publicly clarified details of the Trust Fund and is
still negotiating the details of the MOU and a Management Council to
govern its operations.
OSPAR: The member states of the Oslo-Paris Convention resolved
in an agreement in 1998, known as the "Sintra Agreement" that the
"significant and progressive" reductions in the marine discharges of
artifical radionuclides were required to ensure concentrations "close
to zero". Ireland has taken the UK to the Convention's arbitration
process because of the UK's failure to consult prior to approving the
Sellafield MOX Plant opening in December 2001.
International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea - Ireland has taken the
UK to ITLOS to challenge its approval of the Sellafield MOX Plant
and the resulting transports of nuclear material this will give rise to.
Ireland failed to get an immediate injunction preventing opening of
the plant, but the Court agreed the UK had failed to consult
adequately. The Irish Government is considering further legal action
as a result of the upcoming return MOX shipment. The case is
proceeding.
Dundalk Case -- STAD – the Stop THORP Alliance Dundalk, was
formed to support four litigants in this Irish town on the other side of
the Irish Sea from Sellafield. Children of women who were at a
boarding school near Dundalk in 1957 have been found to suffer
from a high incidence of Downs Syndrome.
In the case against British Nuclear Fuel, the four litigants are suing
BNFL for the harmful effects within Ireland on the grounds that:
1. The THORP concept does not comply with EU law.
2. An Environmental Impact Assessment was not carried out
before the granting of an operating licence.
3. The plant is not justified in relation to Irish citizens living in
Ireland, that is to say that the disadvantages outweigh the
benefits.
Ireland and the Attorney General are also being sued for failing to
protect the plaintiffs and Irish citizens from the hazards of THORP by
not taking appropriate steps to prevent it's operation. (see
www.stad.ie)
Other legal cases:
Between October 1992 and June 1993 two cases were heard at the
High Court in London in which the plaintiffs claimed that the cause of
a fatal leukaemia and a non-fatal non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma was
paternal preconcention irradiation at Sellafield. The judge found in
favour of the defendants – BNFL. However, the cause or causes of
the increased incidence of leukaemia at Seascale, near Sellafield
remains unclear.
NII cases : The British safety regulator, the Nuclear Installations
Inspectorate, has described safety at Sellafield as "only just
tolerable". In 2000, the NII fined BNFL 40,000 pounds for a relase of
concentrated nitric acid at Sellafield that left two workers with burns;
and 24 thousand pounds for a failure to keep proper control over
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