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by bertil 2699 days ago
Depending on the technology, that would most likely fell close to non-proliferation treaty and other international arrangements, so the government and possibly IAEA would have rights to control and visit. I know for instance that radioactive materials used for X-ray are under specific surveillance (it was discussed because of Brexit: the UK imports those from Germany).

In practice, anyone who knows about those technologies is active in the academic and industrial community. There are a lot of regulation that you can’t understand without professional lobbyists, and most of them are former civil servants.

I would compare it to Space exploration: a private actor like SpaceX of BlueOrigin is welcome on principle but has to pay a significant fee for controls. Whether you see that as needed security expertise or fealty is a matter of interpretation.