UK bill would ease changes to waste-transport rules
From the Energy digest for Nov 6, 2026
What happened: AEnergy. A bill introduced in the UK Parliament on November 4 — the Energy Independence Bill, billed as an overhaul of the country's energy system — includes a measure that would hand the secretary or minister leading the nuclear energy department (currently the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero) authority to make provisions for the import, export or general transit of used fuel and radioactive waste, including powers to prohibit, restrict or set requirements for such transport. A government fact sheet accompanying the bill says the UK has "no primary powers" to update regulations on transporting radioactive materials, producing inconsistencies: British rules treat naturally occurring radioactive material differently from other radioactive material, unlike those of several trading partners, and the country's oil and gas industries are its largest producers of that material — a mismatch the provision could help unwind as offshore projects come up for decommissioning. Any regulations issued under the authority would require consultation with Scottish and Welsh ministers and Northern Ireland's environment department. The bill is at its second reading in the House of Commons, with committee review to follow.
What's genuinely new: The transport-rulemaking provision itself, inside a regulatory overhaul the UK has been running since 2025 — a Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce convened under then-PM Keir Starmer reported in November 2025 that "overlapping systems and multiple regulators" made nuclear processes complex and burdensome, and the government's March 2026 response proposed merging the Office for Nuclear Regulation with the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator and creating a new nuclear-regulation commission, conclusions ONR chief executive Michael Finnerty backed in a reply in September.
Watch: How the bill fares in committee and whether the transport provision survives; any regulations issued under the new authority; the ONR–DNSR merger and new commission proposals.
Links: American Nuclear Society · Nov 6, 1:11 PM ET