“A new era of
world class nuclear power demands that we continue to set world
class safety standards.” – Lord Hunt
A single, easily identifiable, body for regulating the civil
nuclear energy sector was proposed by the Government today. The
new body would combine responsibility for overseeing safety,
security and transport of civil nuclear sites and material.
Speaking at a nuclear supply chain conference, Energy and Climate
Change
Minister Lord Hunt said:
“The UK’s nuclear regulators are renowned for their technical
excellence and effectiveness. This is intended to build on that
strength with a modern organisation that is empowered to meet the
challenges of changing requirements due to the UK’s new nuclear
programme, ageing nuclear power reactors, and the decommissioning
of legacy nuclear plants.”
The Consultation on the ‘Restructuring of the Health and Safety
Executive’s Nuclear Directorate’ was published jointly by DECC and
DWP Ministers.
Lord McKenzie, DWP Minister with responsibility for health and
safety, said:
“The restructuring is designed to help deal with a wide range of
complex challenges arising from the rapidly changing requirements
of the nuclear industry. We are seeking to create a new
sector-specific regulator that will meet these challenges and will
now be conducting a full consultation with the nuclear industry,
the public and other stakeholders to gather their views and take
these proposals forward.”
The new, sector specific, independent regulator would:
-
Build on existing strengths whilst enhancing the transparency and
accountability of nuclear regulation.
- Combine the regulatory responsibilities of HSE’s Nuclear
Directorate with those of the Department of Transport for the safe
and secure transport of radioactive material.
- Be a Statutory Corporation with greater organisational and
financial freedom and with a Chief Inspector as the regulatory head.
- Report to Ministers with regard to regulatory functions and to
Ministers and HSE on strategy and business planning,
The Government has already transferred the operations of the
Office for Civil Nuclear Security and the UK Safeguards Office to
the Health and Safety Executive’s Nuclear Directorate in 2007, and
by naming the new body in legislation as responsible for these
functions, the proposals would be used to consolidate the earlier
reform.
Legislation is required to create the new body as a legal entity
to give it statutory functions and powers, and will take the form
of a Legislative Reform Order.
The proposals will not change the requirements and standards with
which duty holders must comply
With the UK’s ambitious carbon emission reduction targets,
nuclear power will make a vital contribution to our energy supply.
More than 12GW of new nuclear capacity is already planned by the
industry in the UK, enough to power 8 million homes. There is the
potential for even more following our Strategic Siting Assessment
in April which is assessing the 11 possible sites that were
identified for new nuclear build.
The HSE has already made significant progress in the generic
design assessment of new reactor designs.
The new body will also face the challenge of decommissioning
legacy facilities and current nuclear power plants that reach the
end of their lifecycle.
1. The aim of the consultation is to set out the Government’s
proposals to improve the organisational framework for the
sustained delivery of robust, effective and efficient nuclear
regulation in the UK in the context of a rapidly changing global
nuclear environment. The consultation document aims to:
- inform stakeholders and the wider public of the proposals for
reform and restructuring of some of the existing nuclear regulators;
- reassure stakeholders and the wider public that the proposals
will not change the requirements and standards with which duty
holders must comply; and
- seek responses to the specific questions contained in the
consultation document and any other views that consultees wish to
make about the proposals.
2. You can find the consultation on the DECC website: http://decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/consultations/hse_restruct/hse_restruct.aspx
3. The Health and Safety Executive is Britain’s national
regulator for workplace safety. Its mission is to prevent death,
injury and ill health in Britain’s workplaces. It does so through
research, information and advice, promoting training, new or
revised regulations and codes of practice, and working with local
authority partners by inspection, investigation and enforcement.
The Nuclear Directorate has responsibilities at 40 nuclear
licensed sites and three Ministry of Defence nuclear sites in the
UK. ND regulates:
- Civil Nuclear Power Reactors
- Nuclear Chemical and Research Sites
- Defence Nuclear Facilities
- New Nuclear Reactor Generic Design Assessment
- Civil Nuclear Security
Internationally ND:
- contributes to the development of nuclear safety and security standards
- participates in, and are subject to peer reviews
- demonstrates the UK’s compliance with the requirements of
nuclear safety Conventions
- satisfies the UK’s non-proliferation and safeguards objectives
ND mission is to ‘Protect People and Society from the Hazards of
the Nuclear Industry’
More detail about the Nuclear Directorate is available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/
4. When the Government published the Nuclear White Paper in
January 2008, it commissioned Dr Tim Stone to review the UK’s
nuclear regulatory regime and explore ways of enhancing further
its transparency and efficiency, whilst maintaining its
effectiveness. He made a number of recommendations designed to
address the nuclear ND’s immediate and longer-term needs, and
which reflected emerging views within Government and across the
nuclear industry and the Government, with the full support of
existing regulators, has decided to propose a number of reforms to
reinvigorate the organisational arrangements of nuclear
regulation.