During the reporting period from 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022 there were no civil incidents at nuclear licensed sites within Great Britain that met the Ministerial Reporting Criteria (MRC) as defined within the Nuclear Installations (Dangerous Occurrences) Regulations 1965 and ONR guidance in relation to notifying and reporting incidents and events.
Revisions to ONR Ministerial Reporting Criteria
Considering the need for reporting important Safeguards events to the Government, the UK Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has worked with the Safeguards team of the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) to produce a list of appropriate reporting criteria, presented in Table 1, against which future safeguard events will be considered.
Table 1 – Ministerial Reporting Criteria for Safeguards Events (MRC-SG)
| Reporting Criteria Classification | Description of Criteria |
|---|---|
| a |
An event affecting the health and safety of IAEA safeguards personnel This includes conventional health and safety injuries, unexpected radiological exposure/dose and any other accidents or rule breaches that have a negative impact on the individual’s health and safety. |
| b | Denial or restriction of IAEA inspector access to a facility/site/location where access would be expected in accordance with the UK/IAEA Voluntary Offer Safeguards Agreement (VOA) (INFCIRC/951) or the UK Additional Protocol Agreement (INFCIRC/951 Add. 1). |
| c | A discrepancy involving 1 significant quantity or more of qualifying nuclear material resulting from material unaccounted for (MUF), or shipper-receiver differences (SRD). |
| d | Failure to locate a discrete ‘item’ containing qualifying nuclear material as it is reported in the operator’s nuclear material accountancy system. |
| e | IAEA safeguards seals on equipment or plant deliberately detached by non-IAEA staff, lost, or showing signs of deliberate tampering, or evidence of tampering with IAEA equipment. |
| f | Events likely to attract, or that have attracted, national media or public attention, or local media attention with the potential to escalate. |
Note - 1 signicant quantity - For plutonium containing less than 80% 238Pu, 8 kg Pu, 8 kg 233U, 25 kg 235U;
for highly enriched uranium (235U ≥ 20%), 75 kg 235U;
for low enriched uranium (0.7% ≤ 235U < 20%), 10 tonnes natural uranium, 20 tonnes depleted uranium, 20 tonnes thorium.