Sentencing hearing scheduled
Since we launched our ONR Academy we’ve doubled the number of people being trained and brought down costs through better technology and a ‘little, local and often’ philosophy. We started the ONR Academy a year ago to improve how we develop our most valuable asset – our people – and help us achieve our goal […]
The Met Office has just released an updated set of climate projections – UKCP18 – which we expect all GB nuclear licensed sites to take account of when assessing the impacts of climate change. Although we don’t expect licensees to transition from the existing projections to the latest ones immediately, any new analysis of climate […]
Many of the questions we get asked by the public are about how well prepared the nuclear industry is to deal with natural or man-made disasters or climate change. Clearly, licensees have no control over earthquakes, plane crashes or sea level rises, but it’s part of our remit to make sure they have measures in […]
At Sizewell A in Suffolk, we’ve been regulating an innovative operation to clear radioactive waste from spent fuel storage ponds. Magnox Ltd used specialist divers to cut up pond skips and equipment underwater and remove radioactive sludge, rather than the conventional method of using remotely operated machinery to lift the skips from the water. The […]
In a first for the UK nuclear industry, we’ve granted permission for the Bradwell site in Essex to enter ‘care and maintenance’, meaning the site has been put in a safe and secure state until final clearance in around 60 years. It’s a significant milestone for us and has given us experience that we’ll use […]
In January we held an ‘informative and reassuring’ event with operators and smallholders, who we’ve been working closely with on establishing a domestic safeguards regime, in preparation for the UK exiting Euratom. At the event we introduced our draft ONR inspector guidance on nuclear material accountancy and control, and ONR regulatory expectations for Accountancy and […]
Wylfa Newydd: We’ve largely stopped working on the Wylfa Newydd new build project in Anglesey, following Hitachi’s announcement in January that they were suspending work on the site. We had been assessing the site licence application submitted by Hitachi’s subsidiary Horizon Nuclear Power in 2017. We’re carrying out a small amount of work to leave […]
Five-year appointment as ONR Chair from 1 April 2019