Reform of the nuclear regulator in the United Kingdom: speeding up licensing and an end to bureaucratic delays.

Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and the Environment Agency (EA) of the United Kingdom have officially unveiled plans for structural reforms aimed at dramatically accelerating the licensing and construction processes for new nuclear projects, according to World Nuclear News

This regulator's response comes in response to the demands of the British Treasury and the conclusions of the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce, formed at the beginning of 2025 under the leadership of John Finglton, which, in its report, stated that Britain's nuclear sector needed a "radical reset" through 47 recommendations, so that the construction of plants would proceed faster, more cost-effective and without missing deadlines.

The main reason for the reform is the long-standing practice in which the regulatory process treated risk in a way that generated unnecessary delays and enormous additional costs for projects such as Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C.

Key measures: a more agile ONR and the merging of environmental procedures

In response to the Government's demands, the ONR's Chief Executive Mike Finerty announced the implementation of the new ONR Together strategy, which brings several key changes:

• More flexible Generic Design Assessment (GDA): modernization of the process for assessing new reactor designs (especially SMRs) and a move toward regulatory models oriented to the entire fleet of reactors, instead of licensing each reactor from scratch.
• Proportional safety cases: revised guidelines for preparing safety studies, which require the industry to provide clearer and more concise evidence, thereby ending the practice of producing thousands of pages of redundant documentation.
• Coordination Body (Lead Nuclear Regulator Group): formation of a joint group of regulators to resolve obstacles early in large projects, with the establishment of a forum with the CEOs of the major industry giants.
• Reorganization of the environmental sector: the Environment Agency (EA) has unified its nuclear functions under a single leadership (Chief Regulator), ensuring faster decisions on waste disposal and environmental impact.

It is expected that all legislative and procedural reforms will be completed by the end of next year.

S.A.