Under UK law (the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974) employers are responsible for ensuring the safety of their workers and the public, and this is just as true for a nuclear site as for any other. This responsibility is reinforced for nuclear installations by the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (NIA), as amended. Under the relevant statutory provisions of the NIA, a site cannot have nuclear plant on it unless the user has been granted a site licence by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The NIA stipulates that only a corporate body, or in other words, a legally united body that can act as one individual, such as a registered company or a public body, can hold such a licence. This licensing function is administered on HSE's behalf by its Nuclear Directorate (ND). The legal regime is complemented by the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1999 (IRRs) which provide for protection of workers in all industries from ionising radiations and by the generality of health and safety regulation which the ND also enforces on nuclear sites.
ND, acting for HSE, sets out in conditions attached to a site licence the general safety requirements to deal with the risks on a nuclear site. Licensees comply with these in different ways; such as, with a safety case to meet a stage in the plant's life, or with arrangements and procedures to meet a licence condition. Guidance is also set out in the safety assessment principles, which ND has developed for its own use, and made available to the public.
ND seeks to keep up and improve safety standards for work with ionising radiations at licensed nuclear installations. It does so through its licensing powers by assessing safety cases and inspecting sites for licence compliance. It sets national regulatory standards and helps to develop international nuclear safety standards.
The Nuclear Directorate’s Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS) is the security regulator for the UK’s civil nuclear industry. It is responsible for approving security arrangements within the industry and enforcing compliance. OCNS conducts its regulatory activities on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform under the authority of the Nuclear Industries Security Regulations 2003 (NISR 03). OCNS also undertakes vetting of nuclear industry personnel with access to sensitive nuclear material or information. It works in close conjunction with policy officials in DBERR's Nuclear Consultations & Liabilities Directorate, with other government departments and agencies, and with overseas counterparts.
The UK Safeguards Office (UKSO) oversees the application of nuclear safeguards in the UK to ensure that the UK complies with its international safeguards obligations. Nuclear safeguards are measures to verify that States comply with their international obligations not to use nuclear materials (plutonium, uranium and thorium) for nuclear explosives purposes. Global recognition of the need for such verification is reflected in the requirements of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) for the application of safeguards by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Also, the Treaty Establishing the European Atomic Energy Community (the Euratom Treaty) includes requirements for the application of safeguards by the European Commission. UKSO works with the UK nuclear industry and others with safeguards reporting requirements to monitor the application of the safeguards measures and ensure that the UKs Additional Protocol (measures to improve the efficiency and strengthen the effectiveness of the IAEA safeguards system) is implemented.
On 01 April 2007, the security activities of the Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS) and the operational nuclear safeguards work of the then Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), now Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (DBERR), along with associated staff were transferred to the HSE.
For civil nuclear safety policy matters in England and Wales, the HSC/E advises the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, while in Scotland it advises the Secretary of State for Scotland. For defence related nuclear safety matters. HSC/E advises the Secretary of State for Defence. ND may be called on to contribute to advice on nuclear safety and security matters to HSE and HSC and, on their behalf, to Ministers.
ND acts for HSE and as a regulator acts independently of any Government Department responsible for the UK nuclear power programme. ND sets the safety and security standards to be used on nuclear sites in the UK.
ND consists of six divisions:
In all, some 250 staff are employed in the nuclear safety activities of ND. Sixty per cent are technical staff qualified to honours degree level or above. All the Directorate's staff work in HSE's office in Bootle, Merseyside. Technical staff join only after they have the equivalent status of corporate members of a senior professional engineering or scientific institution. This means that most of them will have been in industry for ten years or more before joining ND. In most cases, their work will have been in the nuclear industry. ND's work calls for a high level of expertise and a wide range of disciplines. All the technical skills found in any engineering based industry are to be found in ND, as well as reactor physics and radiological protection. More specialised areas are needed too, such as pressure vessel technology, metallurgy, seismology, heat transfer, and there is, of course, a strong emphasis on human factors, quality management and the management of safety.
Most of the other staff are professional administrative civil servants, many of whom have experience in other parts of HSE. They play a major role in the operation of the planning and management information systems, and provide the contact point for parliamentary and ministerial business and with the rest of HSE, and deal with HSE's policy on research. They also set up and arrange briefing for ND staff visiting abroad or for those who are to meet visitors from other countries.
Although ND has most of the expertise it needs to form its own judgements, it uses consultants and has a nuclear safety studies programme geared to its own needs. These give ND an independent source of specialist advice. ND can also call on specialists in other parts of HSE. It uses this wide range of contacts to help with its assessment and inspection work and to gain data and information about faults and operating experiences world-wide. Its consultants come from universities, engineering firms and national organisations, such as the TWI and the British Geological Survey. Each year ND produces an Annual Research Index. This lists the issues that ND considers need more research and will form the basis of the research procured under the HSC Co-ordinated Programme of Nuclear Safety Research.
Information on the staff of OCNS and UKSO will be added shortly.
ND gives specialist assistance to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Nuclear Energy Agency and Euratom. ND/HSE also shares information with nuclear regulators in countries such as Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine and the United States. Much work has also been done to see what may be needed to enable ND to licence foreign reactor designs for use in the UK. ND also offers assistance to the EC's various regulatory assistance programmes to countries in Central and Eastern Europe.