8 May (NucNet): Priority objectives in UK nuclear regulation include reducing hazards at Sellafield and making “lasting improvements” in the country’s preparedness to respond to a nuclear emergency, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has said.
The ONR, formed in April 2011 as an agency of the Health and Safety Executive, said “reduction of risk and hazard” in legacy ponds and silos at the Sellafield site in northwest England needed to be recognised as “a national priority”.
The ONR said it wanted to see “visible, lasting improvements” in the UK’s emergency preparedness and response organisation taking into account international good practice and lessons learnt from the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear accident.
To achieve this, the ONR will revise its approach for the determination of detailed emergency planning zones (DEPZ) around nuclear sites and develop “more challenging emergency exercise scenarios”.
The objectives are detailed in the ONR’s first, standalone, fully costed annual plan setting out its priority objectives and key activities to deliver them, key performance indicators and budget for 2013-14.
In a statement the ONR said publication of the plan is “a significant milestone” towards becoming “a new statutory regulator in the nuclear sector”. That process includes, among other goals, completion in January 2014 of the final assessment of ONR’s readiness to act as a new statutory body, it said.
ONR’s budget to deliver the plan is 53.5 million pounds (82 million US dollars, 63 million euros), which is expected to be broadly in line with its forecast spend for 2012/13 and GBP 1.5 million lower than the spend for 2011/12.
The plan also says the ONR intends to begin the generic design assessment of Hitachi GE’s Advanced Boiling Water Reactor design.
Other goals listed in the plan include an assessment of Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd’s safety submission related to construction of the unirradiated fuels characterisation facility and to provide a formal ONR decision by December 2013 to begin construction of the new facility.
The ONR said the UK nuclear sector is changing rapidly with greater levels of private sector involvement and competition, the increased use of contractors, and the entry of new players into the market.
Most of the UK’s nuclear power stations are due to close over the next two decades, the ONR said. Over the same period, the UK will become “increasingly reliant” on imports of oil and gas, at a time of rising global demand and prices, and when energy supplies are becoming more “politicised”.
The plan is online: www.hse.gov.uk/nuclear/documents/annual-plan-2013-2014.pdf
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