ONR held its annual Industry Conference this week at the Royal Society in London.
The event saw speakers from across the nuclear sector providing their thoughts on the conference theme: “Open for Innovation”. Delegates were also asked for their views to help shape our new five-year strategy (2020-25).
The ONR Industry Conference is a key stakeholder event and an important opportunity to engage with the industry about our regulatory priorities and our future direction.
More than 100 senior representatives from industry, government, other regulators, academics and research bodies attended, discussing and hearing how each must work together to encourage innovation.
We were delighted to hear from the President of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Rumina Velshi, as well as the Director General, Energy and Security at the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Joanna Whittington.
In her speech, Ms Velshi said she felt the immediate future would be a period where enormous progress can happen while safety and innovation work hand in hand. She emphasised the importance of engaging internationally to share innovative approaches to challenges.
The theme of collaboration was also prevalent in our lively discussion sessions which sought to gather views to inform our new five-year strategy (2020-25). Attendees were asked what they thought we were doing well, what we could improve, and where they felt our emphasis should be.
The conference also heard from our new Chair, Mark McAllister, who used his closing address to reflect on the importance of ONR's 'Enabling Regulation' – drawing parallels with the oil and gas industry and re-emphasising how working collaboratively is essential to enable innovation.
Our Industry Conference follow-up report is now available.