nuclear-news

No planning in UK’s Brexit for the problem of EURATOM and UK’s trade in nuclear materials.

Nation Cymru 14th June 2017 When Theresa May triggered Article 50 a couple of months ago, she also
signalled her intention that the UK leave the obscure EURATOM treaty. The
treaty covers nuclear power, an issue which neither the Remain nor Leave
camps even mentioned during the referendum campaign.

How this decision will affect plans for a new nuclear power station at Wylfa on Ynys Môn does not
appear to have been noticed in Wales at all. But what is interesting is
that EURATOM is central in the UK’s trade in nuclear materials.

The nuclear fuel used in our power stations is actually owned by EURATOM and
its safe handling and storage is overseen by that organisation.

When May took over as PM, the core of her Government’s energy strategy was the
commitment to building new nuclear power stations, starting with Hinkley
Point C in Somerset, just 12 miles from the South Wales coast across the
Bristol Channel.

They don’t think that they have a problem, either because the UK will miraculously renegotiate a highly complex set of
regulations with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) within the two-year deadline, somehow arrange an extension of that deadline or perhaps not leave EURATOM after all. https://nation.cymru/2017/analysis-brexit-and-wylfa-bs-nuclear-fuel/

June 16, 2017 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics international, UK