Ireland launched parallel proceedings against the United Kingdom under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in October 2001 when the United Kingdom confirmed, on 3 October 2001, that it would proceed with commissioning of the MOX plant. The case was taken when the strongly held objections of the Government to the commissioning of the plant, conveyed many times over many years to the United Kingdom, were disregarded. This is a much broader case, taken in support of Ireland's position that the MOX plant had been built and commissioned without a proper environmental assessment, without due regard to the pollution impact on the Irish Sea and without adequate consideration of the possible security implications for the plant at Sellafield or for the consequent increase in the marine transport of radioactive materials through the Irish Sea.