4.1.1 Establishing the regulatory body

The regulatory body is created and maintained by the State which provides it with the effective independence, legal authority, competence and resources necessary to fulfil its obligations with regard to the regulatory control of nuclear power plants. The State guarantees that the regulator will work solely on safety; i. e. no other responsibility is assigned to the regulator that might create a conflict of interest, or otherwise jeopardize its ability to perform the regulatory control function.

Before deciding to embark on a nuclear power programme, the State may already have a regulatory body regulating radioactive sources (industrial and medical sources) and/or smaller nuclear installations such as research facilities or reactors. In establishing the regulatory body for nuclear power plants, an informed decision should be made either to expand the existing regulatory body or to create a new regulatory body.

The regulatory body needs the legal authority to undertake the following:

• To develop safety principles and criteria, and to establish regulations and issue guidance that take into account the state of the art concerning safety and, in particular, international safety standards.

• To require the licensee to conduct a safety assessment, systematically or periodically during the nuclear power plant lifetime and provide all necessary safety-related information, including information from the licencee’s suppliers, even if this information is proprietary.

• To issue, suspend or revoke licences and establish licensing conditions and enforcing requirements based on compliance with the regulatory body’s function of verifying safety during the lifetime of the nuclear power plant.

• To arrange access, solely or together with the licensee party or appli­cant, to carry out inspections on the premises of any designer, supplier, manufacturer, constructor, contractor or operating organization associ­ated with the licensee; this will enable the development of a regulatory transparent and open approach which facilitates communication with governmental authorities, the public, national and international organi­zations and regulators and also enables regulatory decisions and infor­mation on incidents and abnormal occurrences to be disseminated clearly.

The responsibility of the regulatory body is to protect people, society, the environment and future generations from the harmful effects of radiation.

Its role is to oversee the nuclear power programme to ensure that nuclear energy is safe to use. The prime responsibility for safety will be assigned to the operator. The operator is responsible for ensuring safety in the siting, design, construction, commissioning, operation, decommissioning, close-out or closure of its facilities, including, as appropriate, rehabilitation of con­taminated areas; the operator is also responsible for the safety of activities in which radioactive materials are used, transported or handled.

Compliance with the requirements imposed by the regulatory body does not relieve the operator of its prime responsibility for safety. The operator needs to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the regulatory body that this responsibility has been and will continue to be discharged as established in the IAEA general safety requirements (IAEA, 2010a).