Nuclear site licensing

Nuclear site licensing is a statutory regime under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (NIA65). In order to assure the safety of nuclear installations in the UK, we work on a system of regulatory control based on a robust licensing process by which a corporate body is granted a licence to use a site for specified purposes. The nuclear site licensing regime also implements the international requirements for operators of nuclear installations to hold nuclear third-party liability cover.

Our 'Licensing Nuclear Installations' (PDF) guide provides an overview of the nuclear licensing regulatory regime, including the requirement for licensing and the processes for licensing, relicensing and delicensing nuclear sites. It explains how and why we license nuclear installations.

The nuclear site licence

The nuclear site licence we grant is a legal document, issued for the full life cycle of the facility. It contains site-specific information, such as the licensee's address and the location of the site, and defines the installations permitted under the licence. Such installations include nuclear power stations, research reactors, nuclear fuel manufacturing and reprocessing, and sites where radioactive matter is stored in bulk.

A nuclear site licence must:

• Clearly define the licensed site and the licensed installation(s); and
• Have attached to it such conditions as ONR deems necessary in the interests of safety.

The LCs require licensees to implement adequate arrangements to:

Licensable nuclear installations

NIA65 requires a nuclear site licence to be in force before a site may be used for the purpose of installing or operating any nuclear reactor (excluding a reactor comprised in a means of transport) or any other kind of installation that has been prescribed. Such kinds of installations are prescribed in the Nuclear Installations Regulations 1971 and, in summary, are those for:

• Manufacturing fuel elements from enriched uranium or plutonium;
• Producing enriched uranium, plutonium, or alloys or chemical compounds containing enriched uranium or plutonium;
• Incorporating enriched uranium or plutonium in devices designed to form part of a nuclear assembly or designed for irradiation in a nuclear reactor;
• Producing neutrons in a nuclear assembly containing enriched uranium or plutonium in which a controlled chain reaction can be maintained with an additional source of neutrons;
• Processing irradiated nuclear fuel;
• Storing fuel elements manufactured from enriched uranium or plutonium, irradiated nuclear fuel or bulk quantities of other radioactive matter associated with nuclear fuel;
• Extracting plutonium or uranium from irradiated matter, or enriching uranium; and
• Producing from nuclear matter isotopes for industrial, chemical, agricultural, medical or scientific purposes.