HSE begins public consultation on revised nuclear safety assessment principles

E042:06 4 April 2006

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is seeking views on revisions to its Safety Assessment Principles for nuclear installations. Comments are invited by the end of May 2006.

The safety of a nuclear plant is the responsibility of the licensee, who is required to submit to HSE a written demonstration of safety, or safety case, which is periodically updated to reflect changing conditions. The Safety Assessment Principles (SAPs) provide a famework for the technical judgements that HSE inspectors have to make to establish whether safety cases are adequate, thus ensuring a consistent approach to the assessment process.

HSE has ensured that the SAPS reflect up-to-date good practice worldwide by benchmarking them against International Atomic Energy Agency standards. The review has also sought to make them relevant to decommissioning activities, which currently form the major focus of the restructured parts of the industry administered by the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency.

The revised SAPs provide important guidance on the application of reducing risks 'as low as reasonably' and contain new sections on radioactive waste management, decommissioning and contaminated land. HSE considers that they will deliver more effective and efficient nuclear regulation, in line with the Health and Safety Commission's principles of transparency, proportionality and consistency.

HSE consulted the nuclear industry on early drafts of the new SAPS in 2005 and is now seeking wider public views. The draft SAPs are available via HSE's website at www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/saps/index.htm

Notes to editors

1 HSE's processes for regulating nuclear safety include assessment of safety submissions made by nuclear site licensees, to determine if the safety measures for any proposed activity meet legal requirements. Health and safety law requires that risks, both to workers and the public, arising from work activities must be reduced so far as is reasonably practicable. To enable a consistent approach to assessing safety submissions, HSE has developed guidance for its inspectors , including the SAPs. The SAPs are not lists of requirements to be complied with, but rather expectations to be met, so far as is reasonably practical.

2 Since the SAPs were last revised in 1992 there have been several developments leading to the conclusion that a review was timely. These include the publication of HSE's Reducing Risks, Protecting People (R2P2) document in 2001 and Guidance on ALARP - As Low as Reasonably Practicable plus changes in the focus of work in the nuclear industry towards decommissioning. Another driver is HSE's work with its partners in the Western European Nuclear Regulators' Association to harmonise regulatory standards. A project to review and revise the SAPs began in 2004.

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