The regulation and licensing of research reactors and associated facilities in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (NII) licenses nuclear facilities, including research reactors, on behalf of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The legislation, the regulatory organizations and the methods of operation that have been developed over the last 30 years result in a largely non-prescriptive form of control that is well suited to research reactors. The most important part of the regulatory system is the license and the attachment of conditions which it permits. These conditions require the licensee to prepare arrangements to control the safety of the facility. In doing so the licensee is encouraged to develop a 'safety culture' within its organization. This is particularly important for research reactors which may have limited staff resources and where the ability, and at times the need, to have access to the core is much greater than for nuclear power plants. Present day issues such as the ageing of nuclear facilities, public access to the rationale behind regulatory decisions, and the emergence of more stringent safety requirements, which include a need for quantified safety criteria, have been addressed by the NII. This paper explores the relevance of such issues to the regulation of research reactors. In particular, it discusses some of the factors associated with research reactors that should be considered in developing criteria for the tolerability of risk from these nuclear facilities. From a consideration of these factors, it is the authors' view that the range of tolerable risk to the public from the operation of new research reactors may be expected to be more stringent than similar criteria for new nuclear power plants, whereas the criteria for tolerable risk for research reactor workers are expected to be about the same as those for power reactor workers