Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what plans his Department has to establish a State System of Accounting and Control for Nuclear Material and then negotiate a formal agreement with Euratom after the UK leaves the EU.

As the White Paper on the UK’s Future Relationship with the EU makes clear, the UK is seeking a close association with Euratom through a broad and comprehensive Nuclear Cooperation Agreement between the UK and Euratom. The Government has also been clear that, irrespective of the outcome of negotiations, it will take legal responsibility for the application of nuclear safeguards in the UK once Euratom arrangements no longer apply. The new regime will be implemented by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR).

Parliament has passed the Nuclear Safeguards Act 2018 which provides the legal framework for setting up a domestic nuclear safeguards regime. Using these new powers, the Government intends to make the Nuclear Safeguards Regulations this year, which set out the proposed detail of the regime, following a public consultation which ran from July to September.

The ONR will implement a UK State System for Accounting for and Control of Nuclear Material (SSAC) as part of the new domestic regime. The ONR is working to ensure it will have in place by 29 March 2019 the IT systems and safeguards inspectors needed to operate the UK SSAC, meet international standards and to build, over time, to equivalent effectiveness and coverage to Euratom.