Responding to news that BEIS have applied for a £2.3 loan from the Brexit Contingency fund, Sue Ferns, senior deputy general secretary of Prospect union said:

“Whilst it is welcome that the government have recognised that the ONR needs more resources if it is to take on the safeguarding responsibilities of Euratom, the simple truth is that this temporary loan does not even cover the cuts to the ONR grant between 2015 and 2020. 

“The government have still not opened a full discussion of how we fund the ONR in the long term so that we can maintain the world class standard of nuclear safeguarding we currently enjoy, this is a conversation that needs to happen soon.

“We would be concerned if the government were planning to offload the costs of their decision to leave Euratom onto the nuclear industry, not least because of the consequences for the ONR of being entirely dependent on the industry it regulates.”