We are the UK’s independent nuclear regulator for safety, security and safeguards. Our mission is to protect society by securing safe nuclear operations.
During scheduled maintenance to replace steel ropes on an overhead crane they became loose and fell to the ground. While no workers sustained injuries, the incident had the potential to have caused serious harm to workers.
The improvements are being introduced with the aim of removing duplication and reducing the time and effort required to secure regulatory approvals in GB.
EDF complies with an improvement notice issued following an incident at Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station in November 2025.
The UK regulator was part of a highly-coordinated international collaboration arrangement to ensure highly enriched uranium was moved safely and securely from near Caracas, Venezuela, to South Carolina.
We have the legal authority to regulate nuclear safety, nuclear security and conventional health and safety at the 36 licensed nuclear sites in Great Britain. This includes the existing fleet of operating reactors, fuel cycle facilities, waste management and decommissioning sites, as well as licensed and, in part, authorised defence sites, together with the regulation of the design and construction of new nuclear facilities, including the supply chain.
Our work calls for a high level of expertise and a wide range of disciplines
All the technical skills found in any engineering based industry can be found in ONR, as well as reactor physics, radiological protection and a number of specialised areas. We are also supported by a corporate centre comprising of administrative public servants who are vital to the effective operations of ONR.
They are used to record findings and, if appropriate, any significant actions we require the site operator to carry out in order to improve matters. Publishing executive summaries of these reports is one part of our aim to be open and transparent by helping all of our stakeholders, including the public, understand our work.
TIGs/TAGs
We are committed to providing up to date, open and transparent content relating to our current internal instructions and guidance used to carry out our core operational work.
Alongside the Environment Agency, ONR developed the voluntary Generic Design Assessment process in response to a request from the Government following its 2006 Energy Review. We will not issue permits for new nuclear power stations unless a design and its potential operators meet the high safety, security, safeguards and environmental standards that we require.
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