Leaving Euratom !!

[EDDIE51]

With the recent headlines little if any coverage has been given to Mrs May's determination to leave Euratom as well as leaving the EU !
I suspect very few realise the consequences of such a decision.
http://bruegel.org/2017/02/brexit-goes-nuclear-the-consequences-of-leaving-euratom/
Put simply Euratom controls the entire European stocks of and access to Nuclear fuel!
Once out of Euratom , Euratom is a separate entity to the EU and we have been in Euratom since 1959, we no longer have access to fuel for our newly commissioned ,French / Chinese built, nuclear power plants!
Your views?

[scooping]

A real shame that many have so little faith in this country's ability to control its own destiny. I am quite sure we can manage to negotiate, or renegotiate, all relevant treaties and agreements, especially as most are mutually beneficial. So put those hankies away and get some backbone.

[scooping]

Eddies1 says 'these would have to form part of the Brexit negotiations'. Yes. What's the problem?

[cassa333]

I'm sure Eddie that now you have pointed out to them that they are about to leave the Euratom without realising it that they will slap their foreheads and go 'Doh IDE clean forgotten about that. Thanks Eddie we'll get right on it. Oh by the way anything else we've forgotten?'

[ToraToraTora]

I'm amazed the project fear didn't bring it up during their campaign, they brought up every other conceivable issue. We'd be thrown out of the galactic Garrick club and forced into hard labour on the klingon moon of Rura Pente. Would not have been too much further! PMSL nuclear Sour Grapes! love it!

[EDDIE51]

I wish some of you would actually do a bit of Googling and find out what Euratom actually does!
Individual European states do not actually own 'fissile ' material it is all the property of Euratom, we just look after it under Euratom guidance!
This is a separate issue from Nuclear weapons !
We have our Nuclear deterrent , in theory we can use it as we want but in reality it would be exceptionally difficult to use it without the 'Go Ahead' from the USA ! If we use our N bombs we can not get more if the USA does not agree with our reason for using them.
Again this may be a bit easier with Trump in the Whitehouse but the principle remains!

[ToraToraTora]

load of old pony eddie and you know it. The Eu owns nothing anyway.

[EDDIE51]

Can someone PLEASE post a credible refutation of this !!! I really want one!!
I am fed up with haveing to rely on the 'sour grapes' and 'Male Bovine excrement' arguments .
I have altered my opinion and now, not only accept the reasons for leaving the EU , but can see the logic in them!
This issue however is on a different level , I am CERTAIN that our PM has no idea what she is proposing means in reality !!
I genuinely was unaware of the proposal to leave Euratom as well as the EU until yesterday!

[EDDIE51]

^ Thanks for proving my point so eloquently TTT !
I could not have done it better myself !!

[ToraToraTora]

Islay will be along soon....

[-Talbot-]

EDDIE51
I am CERTAIN that our PM has no idea what she is proposing means in reality !!

Well if you're 'CERTAIN' then that is truly worrying us.


EDDIE51
I genuinely was unaware of the proposal to leave Euratom as well as the EU until yesterday!


I thought as much ... have you (just for a bit of balance)'googled' what options the UK have?

[naomi24]

Eddie, with all the worrying and scaremongering you do over Brexit, you must be a nervous wreck!

[ToraToraTora]

anyway, I thought Euratom was a cats home.

[sunny-dave]

As usual with every "we're leaving something european" story, I simply ask myself "who needs who more?".

In this case (as with virtually ever other attempted scare so far) it's blindingly obvious that they need us more than we need them - just think expertise and storage/manufacture facilities - and so we will negotiate a new arrangement from a position of strength.

Move along please - not a lot to see here.

[EDDIE51]

Still no answers then!
Just more, sour grapes and it will all work out ?
Without Euratom we CAN NOT buy, use, sell or process fuel for, or the waste products from, our present and future Nuclear power stations! Nor can we access radioisotopes for medical / cancer treatment and diagnosis !
I really wish this was just scaremongering or 'project fear' !
We have already almost totally destroyed our Nuclear power
engineering base which was once the best in the world. We now have to rely on China and France to build our new nuclear power stations. (which will be 'white elephants' without the fuel to power them!)
Unless a solution to this is found we are literally going to find ourselves 'back in the dark ages' with insufficient generating capacity to produce the electricity we need.

[ToraToraTora]

"Without Euratom we CAN NOT buy, use, sell or process fuel for, or the waste products from, our present and future Nuclear power stations! Nor can we access radioisotopes for medical / cancer treatment and diagnosis " - rubbish, says who? how do non EU, ie the rest of the world manage? Eddie eddie eddie me old china, you lost mate, move on, instead of all this bitterness. if there is a demand there is a supply, always has been always will be. Constructs of nation and government are irrelevant

[-Talbot-]

ChickenLicken51
Still no answers then!
Just more, sour grapes and it will all work out ?
Without Euratom we CAN NOT buy, use, sell or process fuel for, or the waste products from, our present and future Nuclear power stations! Nor can we access radioisotopes for medical / cancer treatment and diagnosis !



Just has with every other potential problem, adults will sit round a table and bang out a reasonable option/solution.

' CAN NOT' is erm... was it male bovine faeces?

[EDDIE51]

Euratom existed many years ( formed in 1957) before there was an EU or even a Common Market! It will still exist after we leave.
Why would they change the rules for a relatively minor state? France has many times the nuclear power capacity we have. France generates over 75% of it's electricity from Nuclear against our 12 to 18% . That will fall to zero if we get out of Euratom as Euratom own all our Nuclear fuel . In fact Euratom owns all the Nuclear fuel for the whole of Europe, even states that are not in the EU ! No European state actually owns any Nuclear fuel it is all owned by Euratom and 'allocated' to each state.
There is a serious shortage of such fuel! once we get out that means more for the rest of Europe . I can see them saying 'stuff you Uk' go your own way, we are keeping what we have and you are getting none of it ! . This time the 'they need us more than we need them' argument does not make sense !

[naomi24]

Eddie, do stop being so alarmist about everything. You're in a permanent state of panic!

[New Judge]

Eddie, just ask yourself this: if "Euratom" is the only source of atomic material how do countries which use it but which are not members of the EU or Euratom source their material? The world is not the EU (or Euratom); EU (or Euratom) is not the world.

The EU has taken control of Euratom (probably without too much discussion among its members) and controls atomic material for its members. The UK will not be an EU member. Like the USA, China and a number of other countries which use atomic material it will make its own arrangements. You simply don't think things through properly before leading off on your alarmist posts.

[-Talbot-]

We could be an associated state or simply just pay more for it like other non EU countries do.
Relax, Edward.