GERMAN HAS MAY’S EAR ON BREXIT AS NUKE HUB AT RISK

>> LONDON: The German head of one of the UK’s top nuclear companies is counselling Prime Minister Theresa May’s government on what needs to be done to protect a global hub for the industry from Brexit.

With European Union leaders congregating yesterday to celebrate the Treaty of Rome’s 60th anniversary, Urenco Ltd’s Chief Executive Officer Thomas Haeberle said he was cautiously optimistic that new rules can be negotiated to guarantee the flow of nuclear materials in and out of the UK after the nation leaves the bloc. “We are making the UK government, which is also our shareholder, aware of the requirements our business needs to fulfill in the context of Brexit and of leaving Euratom,” said Mr Haeberle, referring to the European Atomic Community, a part of the EU’s bedrock agreement signed on March 25, 1957.

Just as bankers have made London a global financial hub, nuclear workers have turned Britain into a central cog servicing the world’s flow of atomic materials. Urenco, the world’s second-biggest maker of reactor fuel, runs a factory in Capenhurst and oversees its global distribution network near London. Owned by the UK and Dutch governments as well as German utilities EON SE and RWE AG, Urenco has set up a working group that “deals with all the risks and the possible mitigations,” Mr Haeberle said. He spoke to reporters a week before the EU celebrates Euratom’s 60th anniversary, his first interview since becoming CEO in January 2016. Euratom’s main function is to safeguard nuclear fuel, making sure it isn’t diverted to make weapons. The UK will lose that service once it departs the EU. Nuclear fuel suppliers and power plants need certification from Euratom or whatever system succeeds it to buy material on the open market. For Urenco’s business to continue uninterrupted after the UK leaves the EU, negotiators will have to seal new agreements with governments around the world setting out the new system Britain will follow after it leaves Euratom.