Regulator confirms UK’s “robust” nuclear sector fire safety standards

The ONR led the UK’s contribution to TPR2, combining regulatory and licensee self-assessment to produce a National Assessment Report for European peer review and a UK National Action Plan in response to the findings.  

The review covered a representative sample of installations across the nuclear lifecycle, including EDF’s operating and de-fuelling reactors, the Hinkley Point C nuclear construction site in Somerset, Sellafield’s waste and decommissioning facilities, the Urenco nuclear fuel enrichment plant in Capenhurst, the Springfields nuclear fuel production installation in Lancashire and Dounreay’s Prototype Fast Reactor complex in Scotland.

Overall, UK installations were found to meet the required fire safety standards with no fundamental sector-wide shortfalls identified.  

The peer review did pinpoint three national areas for improvement, with recommendations for Springfields, Dounreay and Sellafield to better formalise, link and prioritise their nuclear fire safety arrangements.

These items were identified by licensees during the self-assessment phase. 

Improvements are already being made at Dounreay, while a new Fire Safety Strategy Programme is in place at Sellafield.

Recurring theme

One recurring theme in the National Assessment Report is the need for licensees to strengthen how they identify, assess and record combined and consequential hazards involving fire, which the ONR will continue to monitor using existing tools including regulatory issues, inspections and Safety Case reviews.  

The ONR also considered international good practices identified through TPR2, including learning from non-nuclear fire events, fire testing or substantiation of credited fire safety elements, dynamic control of transient fire loads and the use or consideration of thermographic techniques.

TPR2 has provided a valuable body of international knowledge in these areas, and the ONR will now share relevant learning with UK licensees.  

Following its exit from the European Union, the UK became an ‘observer’ of ENSREG and, while it;s no longer legally bound to do so, the Government has decided to participate in the TPR.

The ONR was requested to co-ordinate the UK’s involvement on behalf of the (then) Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Adequate arrangements

Jacob Plummer, the ONR’s principal inspector for nuclear safety and project lead for TPR2, commented: “This peer review, undertaken with significant support from UK licensees, confirms that nuclear fire safety across the UK’s nuclear sector remains robust, with adequate arrangements in place across the lifecycle from new-build to decommissioning.”

Plummer continued: “Where we’ve identified areas for improvement, particularly so around how licensees record and assess combined hazards involving fire, we’re already seeing meaningful progress.”  

In conclusion, Plummer stated: “We will continue to hold the industry to the highest standards, tracking these actions through our established regulatory tools to ensure the UK’s nuclear sites remain safe both now and into the future.”

*Further information is available online at www.onr.org.uk