Mechanical Engineering and Structural Integrity specialism

Mechanical Engineering

Our Mechanical Engineering specialists assess and inspect the safety of mechanical equipment, seeking proportionate improvements where safety shortfalls are identified.

Our remit includes:

• ventilation and containment systems
• glove boxes
• lifting equipment (read case studies on our regulation in this area)
• fuel and radioactive waste handling equipment
• power reactor mechanical systems
• nuclear chemical and process plant
• heat transfer equipment and design considerations
• pressure systems
• asset management and maintenance
• transport containers
• engineering design processes
• safety case production and assessment

Our specialists have a wide range of nuclear and non-nuclear experience, both within the UK and internationally. The systems we assess are often complex and encompass elements that are outside of mechanical engineering. In these cases we work collaboratively with other ONR specialist disciplines. This collaborative approach enables us to promote safe application of a range of technologies.

We also collaborate with external stakeholders to improve safety across the industry. This is achieved by:

• directing research both independently and in conjunction with licensees
• stimulating industry to develop new techniques and approaches
• participating in the development of international standards

Structural Integrity

Inspectors in our Structural Integrity specialism ensure that the integrity of key components of nuclear reactors meets the required standards to safely operate.

These components include reactor pressure vessels, nuclear pipework, boiler tubes, storage tanks, structures internal to the reactor and the graphite core in gas cooled reactors.  

They carry out regular inspections and assessments of safety cases to ensure the parts listed above are being appropriately looked after by the operators. This is done for the design, manufacturing, operation and decommissioning phases of all nuclear sites to ensure worker and public safety.

Our Structural Integrity specialism inspectors are highly skilled and experienced. They understand how the inter-relationship between stresses, materials, defects and degradation mechanisms can affect the components of the plant listed above. They then carry out inspections to ensure the nuclear site is safe to operate.

Our specialist inspectors make important regulatory decisions on plant integrity issues. These include the end-of-life condition of the gas-cooled reactor, graphite core of reactors and the demonstration of reactor pressure vessel reactor integrity. Our specialist inspectors do this throughout a reactor’s life cycle taking account of any degradation that occurs over time.