The looming potential for the United Kingdom’s “hard exit” from the European Union could impact procedures for shipping nuclear waste and spent reactor fuel to and from the nation, the U.K. Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said this week.
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 split.
If there is no deal in just over a month, 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.
Shippers would also be required to use documentation from the United Kingdom rather than European Union paperwork.
Conclusion of exports to the EU would require notification 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.
The U.K. Parliament has approved new regulations on transfrontier shipment of radioactive waste and spent fuel for the EU exit, which will apply in a no-deal break.
