- Date released: 10 March 2026
- Request number: 202602072
- Release of information under: FOIA
Information requested
Time Period - 1 January 2021 to the present.
Structural integrity / concrete / building fabric (high-level outcomes) - Please provide a list of inspections, issues, or regulatory actions recorded by ONR in the above period that relate to:
- structural integrity; and/or
- concrete degradation/defects; and/or
- building fabric deterioration;
at any ONR-regulated nuclear site/facility, limited to the following fields only:
(a) date (month/year is sufficient),
(b) site name and dutyholder/licensee,
(c) broad subject/theme (e.g., “concrete degradation”, “structural integrity shortfalls”, “building fabric defects”),
(d) regulatory outcome/rating category (if recorded), and
(e) status (open/closed) and, if available, the month/year of closure.
Lightning Protection Systems (LPS) / lightning hazard protection (high-level outcomes) - Please provide a list of inspections, issues, or regulatory actions recorded by ONR in the above period that relate to:
- Lightning Protection Systems (LPS) adequacy; and/or
- lightning hazard protection / external hazard protection insofar as it concerns lightning;
at any ONR-regulated nuclear site/facility, limited to the same fields:
(a) date (month/year),
(b) site name and dutyholder/licensee,
(c) broad subject/theme,
(d) regulatory outcome/rating category (if recorded), and
(e) status (open/closed) and month/year of closure (if available).
Where ONR holds a centrally maintained register/log - If ONR maintains any centrally held register, tracker, dashboard, or log capturing the matters above (structural integrity and/or LPS), please disclose the relevant extract for the period in a redacted/sanitised form consistent with this request (i.e., outcome-level only).
Reduction of Burden / Advice and Assistance - If you consider any part too broad, please treat this letter as a request for advice and assistance: propose a narrower formulation that would allow disclosure of the same “outcome-level” information (for example, by limiting to a subset of sites, dutyholders, or inspection programme categories), and disclose any part that can be answered as drafted.
Exemptions / Redaction / Partial Disclosure - If any information is considered exempt (e.g., national security/public safety), please provide the remainder and redact only what is strictly necessary, citing the specific FOIA exemption(s) and/or EIR exception(s) relied upon. If “neither confirm nor deny” is applied, please state the provision relied upon and provide a high-level justification.
Important Scope Note (to minimise burden and avoid security sensitivity) - I am NOT requesting drawings, schematics, layouts, precise locations of assets, access arrangements, vulnerabilities, or operational/security-sensitive details. I seek only high-level assurance outcomes (dates, headline findings/themes, regulatory outcomes where recorded, and status of remedial actions).
Information released
We confirm that under s.1 of the FOIA, we hold the information you have requested. However, we are refusing this request under s.12 of the FOIA, as the cost of compliance exceeds the appropriate limit.
The request is too broad because our reporting systems do not allow for specific keyword filtering on themes like concrete degradation, structural integrity, or lightning protection. To fulfil your request, we would need to manually review all records from 2021 to the present across 36 sites, covering Licence Conditions (LC) 19, LC 20, LC 28 and Construction (Design and Management) categories.
This would involve sampling and summarising every inspection, assessment, and regulatory intervention to ensure all relevant themes are captured. Given the extensive scope, we estimate this task would require several full-time working days, significantly exceeding the 24-hour threshold prescribed by the Act.
Further information
In accordance with our duty to provide advice and assistance under s.16 of the FOIA, we recommend exploring our publication search webpage , where much of this information is already directly accessible.
We note in your email that you are seeking only high-level assurance outcomes (such as dates, headline findings, recorded regulatory outcomes, and remedial action statuses) rather than sensitive technical drawings or security details.
You can locate our published inspections and assessments for all of the 36 sites that we regulate by filtering the search for ‘inspection records’ or ‘project assessment reports’. These reports are specifically designed to provide this level of transparency and contains the headline findings and regulatory outcomes for all 36 sites.
Additionally, our published Chief Nuclear Inspector's Annual Reports provide a comprehensive summary of the nuclear industry’s performance, our specific focus areas, and a detailed overview of our regulatory work.
Exemptions applied
s.12
Public Interest Test (PIT)
N/A