The regulation of safety of civil nuclear power plants in the United Kingdom has been enacted in the main — by successive Nuclear Installations Acts, and amend­ments and regulations since 1959. Responsibility for administering the legislation rested with different Gov­ernment Departments until 1974, when responsibility for nuclear regulation was transferred in January 1975 to the Health and Safety Executive established by the Health and Safety at Work Etc. Act 1974. The Nuclear Installations Act provides very wide regulatory powers and no body or person other than the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority or a Government Department may construct or operate a nuclear re­actor without the site being licensed by the Health and Safety Executive. Nuclear licences may only be issued to corporate bodies and, in practice, conditions attached to the licence during the construction and operational stages provide the major system of regu­latory control.

In addition to the national regulatory controls the United Kingdom is, as a member of the European Community, subject to the provisions of the treaty dated 25 March 1957 which established the European Atomic Energv Community (Euratom). The specific

provisions of this treaty are dealt with later in this chapter.

In the United Kingdom the application for a licence to build and operate a nuclear power station under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 (as amended) is paralleled by an application to the Secretary of State tor Energy to build a power station under the Electric Uighting Act of 1909. This requirement applies to all power stations both conventional and nuclear. The site licence relates to a total area of land which may be occupied by one or more installations. Prior to making a formal application the utility submits a Safety Report to the Nil setting out the safety case under normal and fault operating conditions along with information on the containment system, normal and emergency cooling arrangements, site layout, ra­diation contours, arrangements for dealing with radio­active effluents, and storage and handling of irradiated fuel and high active waste. The objective at this stage is to enable the Nil to make a preliminary assessment of the safety of the proposed plant and the suitability of the site.

If the Nil’s assessment is favourable, formal appli­cation for consent is made to the responsible Minister who will then notify Local Authorities, River Boards, Water Authorities and other such interested parties. There then follows a period of consultation after which it is for the Secretary of State to decide whether or not there should be a Public Inquiry before issuing a site licence. If, however, the Local Authority lodges an objection or there is a sufficient weight of public objection, the Secretary of State must call a Public Inquiry, following which he will make the necessary decision. Once the licence is issued the CEGB will start to build the reactor(s) in compliance with the requirements of the licence, whilst maintaining a full dialogue with, the Regulatory Authorities. Development of the Safety Report into the more detailed aspects of the plant continues throughout the ensuing stages and is dealt with more fully in Section 3.4 of this chapter.