Lord O'Neill of Clackmannan (Lab):...The fact is that the nuclear
industry is not just about generation. It is concerned with the
fuel cycle, decommissioning procedures, regulatory arrangements for
safety and general UK regulatory competence. In all these areas, we
enjoy a position of world leadership. The industry gets castigated
because we do not build our own reactors any more—we build them for
our nuclear submarines, but not for civil generation—but there is
an incredible amount of...Request free
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(Lab):...The fact is that the nuclear industry is
not just about generation. It is concerned with the fuel cycle,
decommissioning procedures, regulatory arrangements for safety and
general UK regulatory competence. In all these areas, we enjoy a
position of world leadership. The industry gets castigated because
we do not build our own reactors any more—we build them for our
nuclear submarines, but not for civil generation—but there is an
incredible amount of science and manufacturing expertise at stake
here. Frankly, I am not too concerned at this stage about whether
we are in Euratom, we are going to leave or we have to leave. I am
concerned that this industry should demand the proper attention it
requires. It has already been suggested that in the Government’s
industrial strategy, such as it is, nuclear is going to play an
important part. If so, we need to give proper recognition to the
international character of the industry and to the fact that a
considerable number of British businesses, and considerable British
academic and industrial expertise, are still invested in this
industry. In many respects, we will be pretty well the only country
in the developed world with a nuclear new-build programme. We will
see programmes in China and India, and there is one in America,
but we do not see the kind of nuclear power development that we
might have wished for...
(Lab):...As the noble Lord, , has rightly said, if we were to find ourselves in
that position, it would not be comparable, for example, to other
aspects of the UK economy. If we leave on only WTO terms, clearly
trade would continue. In the international nature of the nuclear
industry, that would not be so. If we were to leave without having
these alternative arrangements in place, it would not be possible
for companies in the United States, Canada, Japan, India, South Korea or many of our nuclear
allies, not least our European friends and partners, to continue to
trade with us in nuclear goods and services. We tend to exaggerate
for a living in this House—we cannot help ourselves, bless us; many
of us are former politicians—but this would be a catastrophe for
the industry and we should be under no illusion about that...
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