Nuclear Safety Regulator
Who regulates the UK nuclear industry?

We talk to Dr Mike Weightman about regulation of the nuclear industry in the UK by the Nuclear Directorate of the Health and Safety Executive.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE)* is responsible for health and safety regulation in Great Britain, and enforces the relevant requirements in conjunction with local authorities.

HSE regulates the nuclear industry in the UK through its Nuclear Directorate (ND). ND’s mission is to ‘Protect People and Society from the Hazards of the Nuclear Industry. ND encompasses HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII), which is the nuclear safety regulator covering both civil and defence nuclear industries, and the Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS), which is the nuclear security regulator for the UK’s civil nuclear industry. The move of OCNS and the UK Safeguards Office from the Department of Trade and Industry (now Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, DBERR) to HSE in April 2007 gives a more integrated approach to nuclear safety and security regulation, and the oversight of accounting for nuclear material.

ND works closely with the environment agencies – the Environment Agency covering England and Wales, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency – which are responsible for regulating the emissions from sites and the disposal of radioactive waste. Additionally, ND works with the Dangerous Goods Division of the Department for Transport, which regulates the safe transport of radioactive materials.

Why do we need the NII and how did it come about?
In the 1950s, the UK started work on the design and construction of commercial nuclear power stations. The Queen opened the first of these, a Magnox reactor at Calder Hall in Cumbria, in October 1956. This was the world’s first nuclear reactor to produce electricity commercially. However, a year later, the nuclear industry met with a major setback when one of the military plutonium production piles at Windscale caught fire. The fire led to a significant offsite release of radioactivity and a consequent ban on milk consumption over a wide area This, together with pressure from the insurance industry to clarify responsibilities following a nuclear accident, led directly to the 1959 Nuclear Installations Act. This Act paved the way for the formation of the Inspectorate of Nuclear Installations in 1960 (now the NII) as the independent licensing and enforcement authority. The 1959 Act was superseded by the 1965 Nuclear Installations Act to accommodate International third party insurance conventions and in 1974, those parts relevant to safety became a statutory provision of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 (HSWA). NII became part of HSE at the same time. (The insurance provisions are the responsibility of DBERR.)

What is the scope of the activities that NII regulate?
Our current areas of regulatory responsibility include operating civil nuclear power plants, nuclear fuel cycle facilities, decommissioning nuclear plant, radioactive waste management, nuclear research establishments, isotope manufacture, nuclear submarine maintenance facilities and the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWE).

How is the UK nuclear industry regulated?
We use one of the most stringent and demanding systems of regulatory control, a nuclear site licensing process under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965. This reflects the unique aspects of the nuclear hazards that if realized could have major impacts not only on people but on various aspects of society such as the economy, international relations, use of land, etc., not only immediately but for many years after a major accident. And, of course, the public has substantial concerns about the safety of nuclear activities and radioactive waste.
Other Health and Safety legislation is also used to regulate the industry specifically the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999, to control routine exposure to ionising radiations, and the Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations 2001, for, in particular, off site emergency arrangements.

What are the NII’s powers?
NII derives its licensing authority from the Nuclear Installations Act. This requires that all operators of nuclear installations must obtain a licence from HSE and allows HSE to attach such conditions, as it considers necessary in the interests of safety and radioactive waste management. These powers, to grant a licence or not and to attach conditions, are delegated to the holder of my post of HM Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations. The conditions can be changed overnight if need be and have the force of law.

Over the years, we have developed 36 standard conditions that together form a sound basis for good nuclear safety and radioactive waste management. They address, for example, issues such as operating rules and instructions, maintenance, safety justifications, periodic safety reviews, reporting and following up on events, training and qualification of staff, modification to plant and procedures, independent nuclear safety committees, emergency arrangements, organizational structures and quality assurance. Several are about the licensee having adequate arrangements to manage change which may have safety implications. The conditions set goals but do not prescribe how these goals are to be met. Therefore, each licensee can develop licence condition compliance arrangements that best suit its activities, whilst demonstrating that safety is being managed properly. Similarly, the arrangements may change as the facility progresses through its life from initial design to final decommissioning. Licensees’ compliance with the conditions and with its own compliance arrangements is mandatory.

Whilst the system gives flexibility to licensees, it secures high standards in a wide spectrum of nuclear facilities without being prescriptive or requiring detailed rule making by the regulatory body. The conditions allow for interventions by NII, which can for example, approve arrangements or Consent to specific actions. Some conditions enable us to direct a licensee to carry out a specific action including shutting down a plant. Others require the licensee to obtain our permission before commencing an activity such as starting up a reactor after periodic maintenance. The licensing powers are supplemented by enforcement and investigation powers derived from the HSWA.

How do NII Inspectors set about their work?
The licensing process largely determines the scope of NII inspectors’ work. This is broadly in four areas. The first is referred to as permissioning inspection and entails the assessment of licensees’ safety cases. A safety case is the totality of documented information and arguments developed by the licensee, which substantiates the safety of the facility, activity, operation or modification. It provides a written demonstration that relevant standards have been met and that risks have been reduced ‘so far as is reasonably practicable’ (SFAIRP). NII’s assessors, who are themselves inspectors and technical experts in specific fields, will sample the safety case to establish whether a licensee has demonstrated that it understands the hazards associated with its activities and how to control them adequately. The technical principles, which NII uses to judge safety cases, are set out in our Safety Assessment Principles for Nuclear Facilities (SAPs). The second area of work is compliance inspection and is mainly done on licensees’ premises. This entails inspection of licensees’ compliance with the licence conditions and their corresponding arrangements and, in particular, to ensure that operation remains within the boundaries of the safety case. Most of the routine site inspection is carried out by nominated inspectors who spend about 30 per cent of their time on site. Additionally, NII undertakes team inspections on particular topics, sometimes with specialists from other parts of HSE in order to share learning across high hazard sectors. These may be regular events, such as witnessing demonstration emergency exercizes, or special inspections on a selected aspect of safety. Third, we undertake the full spectrum of enforcement activity from giving advice to taking prosecutions and taking actions under the licence conditions. And fourth, we also seek to use our influence to further the improvement of nuclear safety and radioactive waste standards; this is particularly important for those areas, which are difficult to regulate, such as the safety culture of an organization and the leadership and vision provided by the Board of the licensee.

Does the NII implement risk based regulation?
Securing the reduction and appropriate management of risk is the cornerstone of our business. For many years, the NII has required nuclear licensees to carry out comprehensive risk analysis of their plants and operations. This has used both deterministic and, more recently, probabilistic techniques. Since the late 1980s, a ‘probabilistic safety analysis’ (PSA) has been an integral part of safety cases for new plants. For older plants, NII required the licensees to submit PSAs as part of the first Periodic Safety Reviews (PSRs). NII does not itself carry out PSAs, but does have experts who assess the licensees’ work in this area. The outcome is used to assist in making regulatory decisions, determining intervention strategies and the focus of NIl’s work.

Risk based (or more appropriately entitled ‘risk informed’) regulation does not necessarily just mean quantitative risk, qualitative assessment and inspectoral technical judgement are also important components for targeting work.
But it doesn’t stop there. We have feedback loops – taking account of events at nuclear facilities in the UK and abroad, safety performance indicators, inspection and assessment findings etc., – into what we call a ‘regulatory review system’, to determine our intervention strategies, priorities and plans – where, when and how to best target our efforts. This system is strongly based on risk information.

The government has recently announced its support for new nuclear power stations as part of the UK’s energy mix. How will this affect the work of the NII?
As part of our input to the Energy Review, we proposed a new approach to licensing, undertaking a Generic Design Assessment (GDA) before considering granting a nuclear site licence for a specific site. Following the Energy Review, the government asked the UK’s Nuclear Regulators to implement this ‘pre-authorization’ system for reactor designs.
NII, OCNS and the Environment Agency prepared joint guidance on how the regulation of new nuclear power plants could be dealt with using this system, and in particular, how GDA would be introduced, to allow design issues to be dealt with in advance of site-specific matters. Essentially, GDA follows a four-stage process, which enables a stepped approach to reducing regulatory uncertainty and resource build-up. It will take around three to four years to complete. Preliminary work is already underway on four possible candidate designs (look at our website to see the latest reports on this work). GDA would be followed by a formal site licence application that would centre on site-specific issues and those relating to the organization of the potential operator.

How do you engage the public in NII’s work?
Nuclear issues in the UK are becoming increasing high profile and transparency, openness and clear accountability are major aspects of earning public trust and building confidence in the nuclear regulatory system.
As part of their work, NII inspectors participate regularly in Site Stakeholder Group / Local Liaison Committee meetings. Reports are issued to these meetings as part of our commitment to making information about inspection and regulatory activities available to the public. Additionally, every quarter my report to the Nuclear Safety Advisory Committee, covering our regulation of the whole of the industry, is put into the public domain. We also produce public reports on major investigations and team inspections that we undertake.

We have made enhanced public involvement a key feature of our new process of GDA. It facilitates public participation early on in the process by giving access to the vendors’ safety, security and environmental reports, without compromising commercial and security considerations. The public can view the designs via the vendors’ or HSE website or, for those with limited internet access, request a CD copy. To alert the public to this opportunity, advertizements were placed in national newspapers at the start of the process and all public libraries were sent information. We ensure that the designers of the new reactors answer any public comments or questions and we will take this dialogue into account in reporting our assessment conclusions.

Of course we are not complacent and we recognize the need to do more, not least in making the information we put out much more reader-friendly, and to actively listen to feedback on the concerns people have.

Does NII have international obligations?
The Chernobyl accident in 1986 underlined the fact that nuclear safety can have international ramifications and countries must demonstrate that they are controlling their nuclear activities competently. Such demonstrations are helped by two international ‘incentive’ conventions: one on the safety of reactors and the second on the safety of Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel Management. Both Conventions set out requirements and also subject ‘Contracting Countries’ to a peer review every three years. We oversee and lead the UK’s response to both conventions on behalf of the UK government.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a UN body, also carries out peer reviews on a country’s nuclear regulatory system. We have participated in and led such reviews which provide opportunities for learning about good practices, and in preparation for new build benefited from one ourselves.

Additionally, for many years NII has been a major contributor to the work of the IAEA in setting worldwide nuclear safety standards, and that of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), in developing good nuclear regulatory practice and undertaking joint nuclear safety research. More recently, the European Commission has been pressing for harmonizing of nuclear safety standards amongst member states and WENRA (Western European Nuclear Regulators Association), of which we are a member, has been carrying out a project among member states where each country’s standards were benchmarked against IAEA and each other’s standards. Lately, for nuclear new build, the regulators from major nuclear nations have been working together (under a Multi-national Design Evaluation Programme), to develop joint approaches to some of the issues in this area – for example, joint inspections of supply chains in other countries.

What sort of measures do you have to ensure your independence from the industry and others?
First, the way we are set up under the HSWA through the HSE as independent from government and industry. Second, through reporting on our work and decisions to the HSE in public meetings and in the reports we put into the public domain. Third, being transparent on the basis for our decisions, for example our Safety Assessment Principles, the Enforcement Management Model, and our business management system which requires each regulatory decision to be appropriately documented and well argued. (These are on our website.) Fourth, through responding to Parliamentary scrutiny under its various committees, and through Ministers to Parliament. Lastly, and by no means least, by the values we aspire to work by, what we look for in the people we recruit, our training and development programmes, our peer review and management oversight procedures, and our core belief – that we serve the people of the UK in securing their protection and that of the wider society.

What are the major challenges confronting NII?
A new build programme, an existing ageing fleet of existing reactors, a more active decommissioning programme together with its radioactive waste disposal issues, changes in the defence related sector, changes in society’s expectations, and the age profile of our inspectorate, all present a significant challenge to us and our capability. We are recruiting to replace those who retire as well as to carry out new areas of work. Achieving the resourcing we need, assimilation of new inspectors, moving the culture and the organization forward, all provide significant managerial challenges in a demanding but exciting environment.

* As of 1 April 2008, the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and HSE merged into a single unitary body now known as HSE. More information about the work of the Commission can be found on the HSE website, or via the Summer 2008 edition of Risk&Regulation.

Dr Mike Weightman is the Director of ND and HM Chief Inspector of Nuclear Installations.
Further information can be found at:
www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear
Enquiries can be emailed to:
NDenquiries@hse.gsi.gov.uk

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