In evidence I submitted last November to
the House of Commons committee examining the Nuclear Safeguards Bill (published
on 13 November 2107; https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmpublic/nuclear/memo/nsb06.htm), I concluded as follows:
“The UK nuclear regulator is going to be
given unprecedented responsibility for policing a diplomatically contentious
new arrangement, which will increase suspicion among member states of the 1968
Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty ( for which the UK , as a co-drafter of the
treaty text, is one of three depositary states) – which ministers pray-in-aid
whenever they discuss the rationale for a UK nuclear safeguards system.
However, ministers routinely cherry-pick those parts of the NPT that suite
their purposes: but the NPT is an integrated diplomatic agreement, with its
articles all relevant and related. Cherry-picking is both diplomatically
unwise, as it normalises abrogation for other signatory nations, and undermines
the very treaty for which the UK is supposed to act as a protective depositary
state!
The UK is already in very bad diplomatic
odour with many dozen NPT member states – the treaty has 191 signatories - for
its fifty-year abject failure to abide by the NPT article 6 requirement to:
"pursue negotiations in good faith on
effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early
date and to nuclear disarmament."
The proposed arrangements for a new
self-policed "safeguards" regime for the UK will undoubtedly add to
the bad image of the UK in the wider international community as a state that
abrogates its international treaty commitments.
This diplomatic dimension has been totally
overlooked by the ONR and utterly ignored by ministerial evidence to this
committee: the consequences further down the road will be predictably dire.
There is time to avoid this outcome; but
minister must be prevailed upon to change their currently untenable negotiating
stance. ONR has a key, proactive and robust role to play in doing so. I hope
for the future credibility of British diplomatic reputation- which has suffered
serious damage in recent weeks due to the multiple failures of the Foreign
Secretary - ONR steps up to the plate and intervenes.”
Today ( 23 January 2018) the House of Commons
returns to examine the remaining stages of the draft Bill in Parliament. It still contains the
unacceptable UK opt out to proliferate from the civil programme if ministers
decide to do so. (they have already done over 600 times under the current
legislation) Our MPs have done a truly shockingly bad job in scrutinizing this draft legislation, more concerned
with cheerleading for Euratom ( such as the blinkered Labour chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial
Strategy Select committee) than doing their real job of making the bill fit for
purpose.
Unfortunately our independent national nuclear regulator, the
ONR, is passively continuing to collude in this disgrace, by declining to speak
out against this flawed legislation,
which is an invite to other nations to copy the UK and proliferate with
impunity.
Here are the support documents and a summary article from a pro-nuclear on-line nuclear new service.
Policy paper
Nuclear Safeguards Bill: draft regulations
A summary of the pre-consultation draft
Nuclear Safeguards Regulations.
Published 19
January 2018
From:
Documents
PDF, 995KB, 74 pages
If you use assistive technology (such as a
screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format,
please email enquiries@beis.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It
will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.
PDF, 60KB, 3 pages
PDF, 85.1KB, 11 pages
If you use assistive technology (such as a
screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format,
please email enquiries@beis.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It
will help us if you say what assistive technology you use.
Details
The draft regulations above are:
- The Nuclear Safeguards Regulations 20–, which
set out the nuclear safeguards regime for the UK
- The Nuclear Safeguards (Civil Activities,
Fissionable Material and Relevant International Agreements) Regulations
20–, which will complete the powers of the Secretary of State to make
regulations under the Nuclear Safeguards Bill by providing definitions
The publication of the pre-consultation
drafts is timed to accompany the report stage of the Nuclear Safeguards Bill
2017 to 2019, which takes place on 23 January 2018.
The explanatory note provides context to
the publication of the draft regulations and the next stages of their
development as well as an overview of the regulations as they are currently
constituted.
Published 19
January 2018
UK offers
early engagement on nuclear safeguards
World
Nuclear News, 22 January 2018
The UK government has published initial pre-consultation draft
versions of the Nuclear Safeguards Regulations to enable early engagement with
Parliament, industry and other stakeholders. The draft regulations, which the
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) published on 19
January, set out the nuclear safeguards regime for the UK and the powers of the
BEIS secretary of state to make regulations under the Nuclear Safeguards Bill
(NS Bill).
The NS Regulations will create the legal framework for a new
domestic nuclear safeguards regime to operate in the UK following the country's
withdrawal from European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom). Publication of the
pre-consultation drafts is timed to accompany the report stage of the NS Bill 2017
to 2019, which takes place on 23 January.
In explanatory notes to the two documents, BEIS said that during
the House of Commons Committee Stage of the NS Bill in November last year,
Richard Harrington, BEIS minister for energy and industry, had made a commitment
to publish a pre-consultation draft of the regulations at the report stage.
"Although good progress has been made with the two sets of
regulations, they are still being developed with the Office for Nuclear
Regulation (ONR). Some elements are dependent on external issues, and some
require further policy development," BEIS said.
"As such, the regulations are likely to change in response
to this early engagement with Parliament and stakeholders and views received
will inform the ongoing development of the regulations, prior to formal public
consultation, which is currently planned for Spring 2018," it added.
Following this the government currently aims to lay draft
regulations before Parliament before the end of this year.
IAEA and Euratom Treaty
The UK has in place two safeguards agreements with the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - a Voluntary Offer Agreement (VOA)
and an Additional Protocol to the VOA. These are trilateral agreements between
the IAEA, the UK and Euratom, BEIS noted.
The UK's current safeguards obligations are primarily fulfilled
through its membership of the Euratom Treaty and associated regulations,
notably the European Commission Regulation (Euratom) No 302/2005 on the
application of Euratom safeguards, it added.
"As a result of the UK's intended withdrawal from Euratom
the UK's current trilateral agreements with the IAEA, the VOA and the AP, will
become ineffective. As a result, the UK will need to conclude new bilateral
safeguards agreements with the IAEA, in connection with the Treaty on the
Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which detail the UK’s future safeguards
obligations," it said.
"The new NS Regulations will enable the UK to give effect
to its obligations under new bilateral agreements with the IAEA and under any
relevant other international agreements on civil nuclear activities which may
be concluded with other states before the NS Regulations are made, including on
the subject of nuclear research and development. The NS Regulations will then
be amended to list those international agreements which are entered into after
the NS Regulations are made," it added.
The UK has committed to ensuring that domestic nuclear
safeguards arrangements can be put in place following withdrawal from Euratom
and that those arrangements will be "robust and as comprehensive" as
those of the existing Euratom regime, and go beyond international standards, it
said.
Powers
The NS Bill also enables the Secretary of State to give the ONR
additional powers to take on certain responsibilities in connection with the
UK's international safeguards and nuclear non-proliferation obligations
including, for example, with the IAEA under the new VOA and AP agreements which
are in the process of being negotiated.
The domestic safeguards regime will primarily involve reporting
and verification processes, which will enable the UK to demonstrate to the
international community that civil nuclear material is not diverted into
military or weapons programmes, BEIS said.
The NS Regulations place legal obligations on UK operators of
qualifying nuclear facilities and, together with many of its existing
enforcement powers in the Energy Act 2013, provide power to the ONR to enforce
these obligations, it said.
Nuclear safeguards are distinct from nuclear safety (the
prevention of nuclear accidents) and nuclear security (physical protection
measures), which are the subject of their own regulatory regimes.
The majority of the NS Regulations will come into force on the
same date. However, it is currently anticipated that the commencement date for
certain regulations may be later to allow operators and the ONR to develop
suitable approaches to delivering and enforcing new requirements that go beyond
the safeguards obligations currently in operation. The policy on this is being
developed.
Operators
An operator will be required to declare the basic technical
characteristics to the ONR using the questionnaire set out in the NS
Regulations, and to provide the ONR with an annual outline of its programme of
safeguards-relevant activities for the upcoming year.
"Acting on the basis of the technical characteristics, the
ONR may impose particular safeguards provisions on an operator in relation to a
qualifying nuclear facility," BEIS said.
An operator will be required to maintain a system of accountancy
and control of qualifying nuclear material, which includes keeping accounting
and operating records and providing reports to the ONR. The schedule concerning
the accountancy and control system "draws upon, but will not totally
replicate", it said, the European Commission recommendation of 11 February
2009 on the implementation of a nuclear material accountancy and control system
by the operators of nuclear installations.
An operator will be required to send accounting reports to the
ONR, including an initial book inventory and an inventory change report. In the
case of a qualifying nuclear facility, which includes a reactor, the inventory
change report must include information on nuclear transformations.
In addition, an operator will be required to provide the ONR
with a material balance report in respect of each material balance area, and a
physical inventory listing.
An operator will be required to submit a special report to the
ONR in the event of an unusual incident or a change in containment or where,
following exceptional circumstances or an incident, an operator has been
informed that qualifying nuclear material may have been lost.
International agreements
It is anticipated that, in addition to new Safeguards Agreements
with the IAEA, the UK will also enter into new bilateral nuclear co-operation
agreements with other States, which will include nuclear safeguards
obligations, including, for example, with Australia, Canada, Japan and the USA.
It is intended that the Nuclear Safeguards (Civil Activities,
Fissionable Material and Relevant International Agreements) Regulations will
list those international agreements, which have already been entered into
before those regulations are made and that those regulations will be amended,
as appropriate, to include any relevant international agreements which are
entered into by the UK in the future, BEIS said.
These international agreements may impose safeguards obligations
on the UK in relation to the supply of qualifying nuclear material. As a
result, the ONR may need to share certain information, which it receives from
operators, not just with the IAEA, but also with certain other States, it
added.
"It is anticipated that the NS Regulations will enable the
ONR to do this by requiring operators to provide information relevant to these
additional obligations alongside the information already required by the NS Regulations
to be provided, in respect of qualifying nuclear material, in the initial book
inventory, inventory change report, material balance report and physical
inventory listing and in respect of intended imports and exports," it
said.
The NS Regulations will also: set out the weight units and
categories of qualifying nuclear material to be used in the notifications which
are required under the regulations; provide for the removal of any derogation
applied to any qualifying nuclear material when it is stored with any
qualifying nuclear material which does not benefit from a derogation; require
an operator to provide the ONR with advance notification of exports and
shipments; require an operator which is an ore producer to comply with certain
reduced safeguards requirements and to inform the ONR of ore exports; and
require an operator to submit an initial stock list and accounting records for
waste and to inform the ONR of transfers of conditioned waste. They will also
prohibit an operator from withdrawing qualifying nuclear material from civil
activities except with the previous written consent of the ONR.
Role of the ONR
The NS Regulations provide for the regulatory role of the ONR in
nuclear safeguards. In general, their activities are governed by the Energy Act
2013, but the regulations set out some additional provisions including
inspections, publication of information, provision of information to the IAEA,
communication with the IAEA on the issue of derogations, and the
characterisation of material, for example, as waste.
The ONR said today that it has worked with BEIS in the
development of the draft regulations, and will continue to do so as the
regulations are developed further. ONR said it will engage with stakeholders to
discuss the operation of the future domestic safeguards regime in the coming
months.
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