Almost alone among western democracies, the UK has been pursuing new nuclear power plants. Market forces have intruded, as Great Britain’s foreign partners in nuke development – primarily Japan’s Toshiba and Hitachi, and France’s EDF – have seen the UK’s ambitious nuclear plans unravel.
Now, Britain’s inability to work out how it will exit from the European Union threatens to further complicate its nuclear vision, a key to the kingdom’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Britain’s internationalized nuclear program is largely guided by the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom), which governs safeguards in the use of radioactive materials including transfers among other powers.
Looming over the complex issues is the March 29 date at which the UK is scheduled to sever its EU membership. It may be in both the UK and the EU’s interest to kick that Brexit can down the road, after two years of inconclusive dithering in London. That decision has not yet arrived.
The ruling Conservative Party government has been flailing ineffectually to come up with an EU exit plan. The nation’s relationship with Euratom is a key element in the so far inchoate exit strategy. It impacts not only Britain’s nuclear commerce with Europe, but also with the U.S.
A recent analysis by the Pillsbury law firm notes that once the UK bails out of Euratom, it “will no longer be able to participate in or rely on Euratom’s peaceful nuclear cooperation agreements with other countries, including the United States, as the legal framework for exports of nuclear material from suppliers in other countries.” The analysis adds, “There is no U.S. advance consent in place for retransfer of nuclear material and items from Euratom countries to the UK post Brexit.”
The U.S. and the UK are aware of this problem, but, says the Pillsbury analysis, “The process itself will likely take at least several months and perhaps a year or more.” Smart money is betting the over on a year.
UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s November draft agreement negotiated with the EU, which went down in bipartisan flames in Parliament, acknowledged that Britain will pull out of Euratom. It stated, “The [UK] shall have sole responsibility for ensuring that all ores, source materials and special fissile materials covered by the Euratom Treaty and present on the territory of the [UK] at the end of the transition period are handled in accordance with relevant and application international treaties and conventions, including but not limited to international treaties and conventions on nuclear safety.”
Among other problems with the exit, a recent survey of hiring managers and energy professionals “emphasized the extent to which the UK nuclear industry is dependent on EU workers.” Tom Greatrex of Britain’s Nuclear Industry Association, the nuclear lobby, and a former shadow energy minister, said, “The nuclear industry in the UK has benefited from access to a wide pool of skilled workers from across Europe. Movement of people and services continue to be a concern for the industry as there is a lack of detail from government on how this would work once we leave the European Union.”
Britain’s venerable nuclear industry has a mixed record. Its 50-MW Calder Hall was the world’s first commercial civilian nuclear power plant (government owned). But Great Britain then bet its nuclear future on Calder Hall’s graphite moderated, carbon dioxide cooled (Magnox) technology, which produced both electric power and plutonium for the country’s nuclear weapons program. It proved to be a trouble-prone, unreliable approach to nuclear generation.
The country then doubled down on the Magnox technology, producing a new generation of CO2-cooled advanced gas reactors (AGRs). These machines proved to be disappointing. The AGRs remain in service, while the original Magnox machines have been shut. In 1987, the UK decided to join most of the rest of the developed world and build light water reactors. Sizewell B, a conventional Westinghouse 1,200-MW pressurized water reactor, began construction that year and went into service in 1995.
France’s EDF Energy operates Sizewell B. Over the years, EDF has acquired much of Great Britain’s distribution grid and, in 2009, bought British Energy, the nation’s nuclear operator. That gave EDF ownership of seven AGRs and Sizewell B, with a total of about 9 GW of generating capacity. In 2010, a Hong Kong based firm bought EDF’s distribution network in the UK.
— Kennedy Maize