Last week's poll: Euratom action

It's still not clear what the UK is going to do about its membership of the European Atomic Energy Community, better known as Euratom, following its scheduled exit from the European Union. A policy paper published last week by the Department for Exiting the EU set out a desire to replace the functions of Euratom with a UK body, but has been criticised by the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee for not providing detail on ownership of Euratom's UK-located nuclear safeguarding equipment; any timetable for transition to a UK regulator or, more alarmingly for many, on acquisition and movement of medical radioisotopes. But if David Davies and his negotiating team take any notice of the readers of this publication, they'd see an overwhelming desire to stay within the Euratom Treaty.

Of the 356 readers who responded to the poll, a clear majority — 54 per cent — thought the government should amend the legislation triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty so that the UK could stay within Euratom as a full member. Taken with the 21 per cent who thought we should negotiate associate membership, duplicating Switzerland's status but staying under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice for this matter, and that makes an overwhelming three-quarters of respondents in favour of Euratom. The smallest proportion of respondents, 12 per cent, thought we should create a new legal body to oversee nuclear regulation, while 13 per cent declined to pick an option.

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