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NEW INDEPENDENT NUCLEAR REGULATOR PROPOSED

News Release issued by the Government News Network on 30 June 2009

“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.