UK confirms it will leave European atomic energy community

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BrexitUK confirms it will leave European atomic energy community
Exit from Euratom carries serious implications for nuclear industry andresearch

Membership of Euratom is a condition of Britain acting as host for the Join European Torus project,currently the largest nuclear fusion experiment in the world © UKAEAYESTERDAY by: Alex Barker and Arthur Beesley in Brussels and Andrew Ward in London

Britain will have to strike new international agreements with the US and othercountries to maintain access to nuclear power technology after confirming for thefirst time its intention to leave the pan-European atomic energy regulator.
Exit from Euratom, an organisation that has controlled the peaceful use of nuclear
energy on the continent since 1957, will complicate the UK’s plans to build a newgeneration of nuclear power stations and rebuild the country’s nuclear supply
chain.

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Footnotes to the five-paragraph bill to authorise Brexit(http://next.ft.com/content/e4583436-e3be-11e6-9645-c9357a75844a), publishedon Thursday, said the legislation would empower the prime minister to leave boththe EU and Euratom (https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020section/euratom), a separate legal entity that is governed by EU institutions.
The decision has wide-ranging implications for Britain’s nuclear industry, research,access to fissile materials and the status of approximately 20 nuclear co-operationagreements that it has with other countries around the world.
Although EU lawyers had long concluded that Article 50 notification would apply
to the Euratom treaty as well, the UK government had until now insisted it was still
considering the implications of the Brexit vote for its membership of theorganisation.

A site worker walks through the concrete batching plant at the Hinkley Point C nuclear powerstation © Bloomberg

Serving notice to leave will open a complex separate track of negotiations, bothwith the EU and a dozen-plus other countries outside Europe whose nuclear co-https://www.ft.com/content/fe3b50a4-e3e1-11e6-8405-9e5580d6e5fb

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operation treaties with the UK explicitly rely on safeguards provided throughEuratom.
Senior people in the nuclear industry said

The nuclear industry reallydoesn’t like it. It’s bad news forthe industry, bad news for
opponents and critics of theindustry as well. It’s a lose-losesituation, whereby the industry
becomes less competitive andless safe
Dr Paul Dorfman, UCL

new bilateral agreements would be neededwith the International Atomic Energy
Agency, the global body overseeing
nuclear technology, and, crucially, with
the US because several of the UK’s
existing and planned nuclear reactors use
US technology or fuel.
Dr Paul Dorfman, honorary seniorresearcher at the Energy Institute at University College London, said: “It’s badnews for the industry, bad news for opponents and critics of the industry as well.
It’s a lose-lose situation, whereby the industry becomes less competitive and lesssafe.”
Dr Dorfman added: “The UK has current bilateral nuclear co-operation agreements
in place that are predicated on Euratom safety regimes — and all of this has taken a
lot of time to put in place. You’re talking about key safeguards and assurances andthat might have serious implications for UK new-build installations, the nuclear
fuel cycle and the UK’s enormous waste and decommissioning liabilities.”
Rupert Cowen, a lawyer specialising in nuclear energy at Prospect law, said the exitfrom Euratom amounted to a legal “time bomb”.
“Where the UK has current bilateral nuclear co-operation agreements in place,those agreements are predicated on application of the Euratom safeguards within
the UK,” he said. “As soon as [Euratom] falls away it means those jurisdictions
cannot operate with us.”https://www.ft.com/content/fe3b50a4-e3e1-11e6-8405-9e5580d6e5fb

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He added that nuclear co-operation agreements can take considerable time toagree and ratify and may not be possible to complete before Britain leaves the EUin 2019.
Euratom can enter agreements or contracts to co-operate with third countries.
Eight such agreements are in place — with the US, Japan, Canada, Australia,
Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and South Africa — but they vary in scope.
Any third-party agreement between the UK and Euratom would not be the same as
membership of the organisation.
Membership of Euratom is also a condition for Britain hosting(http://next.ft.com/content/6ee1ba76-b324-11e6-a37c-f4a01f1b0fa1) what iscurrently the largest nuclear fusion experiment in the world.
Based at the Culham centre in south Oxfordshire, the Joint European Torus project
involves some 350 scientists exploring the potential of fusion power, backed byfunding from almost 40 countries in the EUROfusion consortium.

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The Joint European Torus project is based at the Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire. It involves
some 350 scientists exploring the potential of fusion power, backed by funding from almost 40
countries in the EUROfusion consortium © Eurofusion

The European Commission-owned nuclear tokamak machine has generated about
3,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste in rural Oxfordshire. It will cost about£289m to decommission.
Senior figures in the UK nuclear industry acknowledged that departure fromEuratom would be a significant problem but denied that it put new reactor
programmes under threat. Horizon, the company owned by Hitachi of Japan whichis planning a power station in Anglesey, Wales, using US nuclear fuel, said it wasreassured by the government’s commitment to quickly put new regulatory
arrangements in place.
“Whilst the UK’s withdrawal from Euratom would present issues that would need
to be addressed we are confident these can be resolved on a timescale that keeps us
on schedule to successfully deliver our lead project, Wylfa Newydd,” said Horizon.

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The UK government said: “Leaving Euratom is a result of the decision to leave theEU as they are uniquely legally joined. The UK supports Euratom and will want tosee continuity of co-operation and standards. We remain absolutely committed tothe highest standards of nuclear safety, safeguards and support for the industry.
“Our aim is clear: we want to maintain our mutually successful civil nuclear cooperation with the EU.”
Additional reporting by Jim Pickard
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