Nuclear fire safety across the UK’s nuclear sector remains robust, with adequate arrangements in place across the lifecycle, from new-build to decommissioning, according to work as part of the second European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group (ENSREG) Topical Peer Review (TPR2). The review by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) for the UK covered a sample of installations across the nuclear lifecycle, including EDF’s operating and defuelling reactors, Hinkley Point C nuclear construction site in Somerset, Sellafield’s waste and decommissioning facilities in west Cumbria, Urenco nuclear fuel enrichment plant in Capenhurst, Cheshire; 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.ย The peer review did point to three national areas for improvement, with recommendations for Springfields, Dounreay and Sellafield to better formalise, link and prioritise their nuclear fire safety arrangements.
Arising from the work, a document states that the main cross-industry theme is ‘to improve the treatment of combined and consequential hazards, including fire’.
Jacobย Plummer,ย Principal Inspector โ Nuclear Safety,ย and project lead for TPR2:ย “Where we have identified areas for improvement, particularly around how licensees record and assess combined hazards involving fire, we are already seeing meaningful progress.ย ย 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.”
Photo by Mark Rowe: perimeter, Sizewell C new build.
