Lord Teverson, chair of the European Union Energy and Environment Sub-Committee, has asked for urgent reassurance from the government that it will be able to take responsibility for the UK’s nuclear safeguards from 30 March next year when the UK is due. to leave the EU.
In a letter to Richard Harrington MP, Lord Teveson asked for reassurance on five areas where concerns had been raised in the media. “Several of these areas relate to concerns we raised in our report, and yet none of these risks were mentioned in the government’s response,” he said. Raising the risk of a failure to “recruit enough people with the right skills to deliver a UK State System of Accountancy for control of nuclear material to meet international obligations by 2019”, he asked the minister: ”Do you stand by your statement that the UK will be able to meet its international nuclear safeguarding obligations by the time it withdraws from Euratom?”
The five areas of concern are:
- Whether a new IT system to track nuclear material is on schedule,
- Slow progress recruiting safeguards inspectors,
- A lack of training for inspectors,
- Concerns about long-term funding for the Office for Nuclear Regulation, and
- Failure to arrange the handover of equipment from Euratom to the UK.