The UK nuclear regulator outlines its 2017-2018 Corporate Plan

The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the nuclear regulatory authority of the United Kingdom (UK) has unveiled its 2017-2018 Corporate Plan along with its 2016-2017 Annual Report and Accounts.



Four main goals are highlighted in the document and in particular the support of the UK government in managing the Euratom exit process and the assessing of three other new reactor designs (Westinghouse's AP1000, UK ABWR and UK HPR1000), which will be deployed in the UK at four sites in the years to come as well as the monitoring of the EPR deployment (Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C). The ONR expects these four reactor designs to provide over 16 GW of electricity through the construction of 13 units on six sites. In March 2017, the ONR concluded that Westinghouse's AP1000 nuclear reactor design is suitable for construction in the UK while the HPR1000 Generic Design Assessment process began in January 2017.



The ONR became a self-standing Public Corporation in 2014 and is now an independent body, accountable to the British parliament through the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. It was set up by the 2013 Energy Act to regulate nuclear safety, security and conventional health at the UK licensed nuclear sites which include nuclear operating reactors, fuel cycle facilities, defence sites, waste management and ongoing decommissioning sites. The responsibilities currently held by Euratom, the pan-European nuclear regulator, are to be transferred to the ONR after the UK leaves the EU but the ONR will need more inspectors and may face a skills shortage.and a thinning of its regulatory capability in the years ahead.





Source: Office for Nuclear Regulation