The UK warned Brussels that after leaving the bloc, the country has the right to send back to the EU countries radioactive waste that was previously sent to Britain for processing, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
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About it The Financial Times reports with reference to a document presented by Britain at the Brexit negotiations.
“The document defining the UK's position in the Brexit negotiations emphasizes the right to “return radioactive waste... to the country of origin,” it said.
According to an unnamed British official, the warning is a coded message to Brussels that it is in the EU's interests to reach consensus on the issue.
“This can only be a reminder that if an agreement is not reached, a ship with plutonium could end up in the port of Antwerp,” said one nuclear expert who advises the British government.
In addition, the document also highlights EU countries' responsibilities for certain “special fissile materials,” which are the most dangerous and extremely tightly regulated types of nuclear substances, including plutonium from spent fuel.
It is emphasized that almost a fifth of the 126-ton stockpile of civilian plutonium stored at the state-owned Sellafield plant in the English county of Cumbria comes from abroad.
The plant has been processing nuclear fuel from the rest of Europe, including Germany, Italy and Sweden, since the 1970s, the newspaper writes.