The looming potential for the United Kingdom’s “hard exit” from the European Union could impact procedures for shipping radioactive waste and spent reactor fuel to and from the nation, the U.K. Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said this week.
Following a 2016 referendum, the U.K. is due to leave the EU on March 29, but the parties have yet to seal a withdrawal agreement setting the terms for the contentious split. If that remains the case just over a month from now, the impact on trade, immigration, and other activities could be significant now that the nation will no longer fall under European Union guidelines on those matters.
This also applies to the transport of radioactive wastes, according to a BEIS advisory. While the national policy will remain the same, select processes might change — including using U.K. documentation rather than EU paperwork for shipments.
Without a withdrawal agreement, radioactive waste import shipments to the U.K. from the European Union would require proof that the exporting body would reclaim the material if the shipment cannot meet regulations.
Conclusion of imports or exports would require notification within 15 days to an appropriate “competent authority” in the U.K.: England’s Environment Agency, Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Natural Resources Wales, or the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.
Those bodies expect next month to issue new shipping authorization forms, BEIS said. Any entity that does not have authorization now must apply to continue imports or exports.
Also anticipated to be released in March, according to BEIS: “appropriate documentation” that must go with each shipment and a notification of arrival form that must be sent to the appropriate competent authority after any shipment.
“There will be no weakening of controls on the import of nuclear waste if the UK leaves the EU without a deal,” a BEIS spokesperson said by email Friday.
From 2015 to 2017, the U.K. competent authorities approved 66 imports and 1,268 exports of radioactive waste and spent fuel. Shipment levels are not expected to change significantly in the event of a no-deal exit from the European Union.
Most exports involve contaminated metals sent to other nations for treatment or processing and receives returned separated radioactive waste. It also ships and receives radioactive waste and spent fuel to be used in research. Imports include spent fuel to be reprocessed in the U.K.
The U.K. Parliament approved the new regulations on transfrontier shipment of radioactive waste and spent fuel for the EU exit, which will apply in a no-deal break. They would replace a similar regulatory document from 2008.
The new rules cover transfrontier movement of a long list of radionuclides in quantities and concentrations exceeding those listed in Annex VII of a 2013 document on radiation safety from the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), which the U.K. would leave following Brexit. Exemptions are made for: shipment of disused radiation sources to a supplier or producer of sources; shipment of material for reprocessing; and shipment of naturally occurring radioactive material.
Failure to comply with the requirement to obtain import or export authorization from the appropriate U.K. competent authority, failure to provide notification of a shipment within 15 days, and other actions would be considered a criminal offense under the regulations. Maximum prison time on conviction would be two years for an individual, along with potential fines.
