Brexit ‘gamechanger’ on nuclear plan

Of all the international regulatory challenges created by the UK’s impending departure from the EU, the atomic-energy industry may best encapsulate the decision’s bottom-line effect: More bureaucracy and costs for a country that has long fought to curb both within the EU.

Untwining the UK from decades of centralised European supervision of nuclear material for civilian use mirrors the broader Brexit process.

Each involves abandoning treaty-bound organisations, re-establishing links on less integrated terms and, in the meantime, creating uncertainty for everybody from executives to researchers.