Safety Case Toolkit

Fundamental Nuclear Safety Principles

Purpose

It is common practice among UK licensees to produce a set of Nuclear Safety Principles (NSPs) for application in the assessment of the safety of their installations. While the specific content varies from one licensee to the next, the general intent is the same: to provide a high-level set of principles for reviewing the adequacy of their nuclear safety cases, taking due consideration of available international and regulatory guidance, such as the IAEA Fundamental Safety Principles and the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) Safety Assessment Principles (SAPs).

The development and application of NSPs to the production of nuclear safety cases represents established good practice in UK safety case development that should be considered for adoption by any future licensees. To aid future licensees in the development of their own NSPs, the sections that follow present a set of candidate principles that can be adopted or developed to fit each individual licensees’ requirements. These requirements have been deliberately developed to be as generic as possible so that they may be applied to all types of nuclear site in the UK, including reactors, process plants, fuel manufacture, decommissioning and military applications.

Key Sources of Information

The nuclear safety principles presented in this section have been developed from a review of the existing available guidance and knowledge of current UK licensees arrangements. The key sources of information include:

  • IAEA Fundamental Safety Principles.
  • IAEA Requirements and Safety Guides.
  • ONR Safety Assessment Principles (SAPs) for Nuclear Facilities.

Fundamental Safety Objective

The fundamental objective of all organisations undertaking activities involving nuclear material must be to ensure that those activities do not adversely impact people or the environment.

It is therefore appropriate to specify the following fundamental safety objective:

  • FSO 1 - The public, workers and the environment shall be protected from the harmful effects of ionising radiation associated with the activities undertaken on the nuclear site.

This aligns closely with the IAEA fundamental safety objective stated in its Fundamental Safety Principles document. The more detailed NSPs presented in the following sections are intended to outline the means by which this ultimate objective shall be ensured.

Nuclear Safety Principles

The NSPs presented in this section have been developed from a review of the existing available international, national and industry guidance and knowledge of current UK licensee’s arrangements. The principles are split into the following topic areas, based on the structure of the IAEA General Safety Requirements documents:

  • Leadership and Management.
  • Radiological Protection.
  • Safety Assessment.
  • Radioactive Waste Management.
  • Decommissioning.
  • Emergency Preparedness.