CLERK OF THE TRIBUNAL: All rise, veuillez-vous lever. 

LORD GOLDSMITH: Mr President, Members of the Tribunal. I concluded my presentation yesterday looking at the Environment Agency’s consideration of the issue of radioactive discharge from the MOX plant. The passage I was looking at is up on your screens at the moment and it says, “It may be noted that the assessed dose due to gaseous and liquid discharges from the MOX plant is less than one millionth of that due to natural background radiation”. 

What does Ireland say in the face of this? Ireland has four main points: first, it says that the Sellafield site as a whole has a harmful impact on the Irish Sea; second it says that there is a poor record of safety and compliance with regulatory requirements at Sellafield; third, it says that the operation of the MOX plant will inevitably lead to discharges of radioactive substances into the marine environment; and, fourth, it says that the MOX fuel manufacturer is vulnerable to accidents. 

May I address those four points in turn? First, the allegation as to the discharge from the Sellafield sites as a whole. Now here Ireland aims at a different and, it hopes, an easier target than the MOX plant and yesterday it focused in particular on the THORP plant. There are two responses to this. First, this is the MOX plant case. That is its name. This name reflects the dispute that Ireland relies on in its provisional measures. This is not the THORP plant case. Ireland seeks no provisional measures in relation to the THORP plant. There are no allegations about the THORP plant before the Annex VII Tribunal. How then could this Tribunal possibly order provisional measures on the basis of allegations of harm from the THORP plant.