Nuclear Safeguards and Electricity (Finance) Act 1978
| Year | 1978 |
Nuclear Safeguards andElectricity (Finance)Act 1978
1978 CHAPTER 25
An Act to make provision for giving effect to an International Agreement for the application of Safeguards in the United Kingdom in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons; and to authorise contributions by the Secretary of State to expenditure by the Central Electricity Generating Board in connection with the construction of the second stage of the Board's generating station at Drax.
[30th June 1978]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Safeguards on nuclear material
1 The Safeguards Agreement.
(1) The provisions of sections 2 and 3 below shall have effect for the purpose of enabling effect to be given in the United Kingdom to the Agreement made on 6th September 1976 at Vienna between the United Kingdom, the European Atomic Energy Community and the International Atomic Energy Agency for the application of Safeguards in the United Kingdom in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
(2) The text of the Agreement referred to in subsection (1) above was presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs by Command of Her Majesty on 3rd March 1977 , and in the following provisions of this Act—
(a ) the Agreement (of which the Protocol attached thereto forms an integral part) is referred to as ‘the Safeguards Agreement’; and
(b ) any reference to a numbered article is a reference to the article of the Safeguards Agreement which bears that number.
2 Rights of Agency inspectors.
(1) Subject to subsection (2) below, for the purpose of—
(a ) making any inspection permitted by articles 71 to 84; or
(b ) verifying design information, as mentioned in article 50,
any person designated as an inspector of the International Atomic Energy Agency under article 85 may enter any facility or part thereof and there make any inspection or do any other thing which may reasonably be required for that purpose.
(2) The powers conferred by subsection (1) above shall be exercisable only in the cases specified in, and subject to the provisions of, the Safeguards Agreement and, in particular,—
(a ) shall be exercisable only in accordance with articles 5, 9(c ) and 87 and the provisions of the Protocol which forms part of the Safeguards Agreement; and
(b ) where article 83 applies, shall not be exercisable unless any advance notice required by that article has been given.
(3) In the following provisions (which restrict rights of entry to certain prohibited places which belong to or are used for the purposes of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority or which are sites of nuclear installations) namely—
(a ) subsection (3) of section 6 of the Atomic Energy Authority Act 1954 ; and
(b ) sub-paragraph (2) of paragraph 3 of Schedule 1 to the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (as inserted into that Act by the Atomic Energy Authority Act 1971 ),
at the end of paragraph (b ) there shall be added the words ‘or
(bb ) a person designated as an inspector of the International Atomic Energy Agency under article 85 of the Agreement made on 6th September 1976 for the application of Safeguards in the United Kingdom in connection with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Cmnd. 6730)’.
(4) Any person who—
(a ) intentionally obstructs any person exercising a power conferred by subsection (1) above; or
(b ) without reasonable excuse refuses or fails to provide any information or to permit any inspection reasonably required by any such person; or
(c ) without reasonable excuse refuses or fails to carry out in a facility any operation which he is requested to carry out by a person designated as mentioned in subsection (1) above,
shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding 1,000.
(5) If any person in giving any information reasonably required by any person exercising a power...
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