Legal fight over Thorp go-ahead

Greenpeace, the environmental pressure group, is to challenge in the courts a government decision to approve the first use of radioactive material at the Thorp nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield, in Cumbria.

British Nuclear Fuels said the Inspectorate of Pollution permit, allowing testing with uranium from 2 September, could save up to pounds 20m by allowing the plant to open two months ahead of schedule, if it receives a full operating licence.

However, Greenpeace said that the decision made a 'complete mockery' of the public consultation into the licence application, which ends on 4 October.