The Safety Assessment Principles (SAPs) support inspectors in assessing nuclear safety cases submitted by dutyholders and requesting parties.
From today (Monday, 27 July), ONR is opening a public consultation on the SAPs revision and wants to hear from nuclear operators, industry bodies, the public and all those with an interest in nuclear safety. Your views will help ensure the updated SAPs are as clear and effective as possible.
The consultation will run for eight weeks, closing on 18 September with the final version of the SAPs expected to be published in December 2026.
The 2026 update seeks to strengthen the regulatory framework by aligning the SAPs with current legislation, international standards and the latest developments in technology and industry practice.
This enables decision-making to be more consistent, timely and proportionate.
By enhancing transparency and reinforcing a flexible, risk-informed approach, the updated SAPs support ONR strategic aims of being a modern, agile and productive regulator, enabling innovation and growth across a rapidly evolving sector.
The current SAPs, last substantively revised in 2014 and updated in 2020, were developed for a very different nuclear landscape to today’s which now is accompanied by fast-moving technological innovation, a renewed government ambition of the UK’s new nuclear programme and evolving international standards that now shape good practice.
The independent Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce, commissioned by the Prime Minister, found that the UK’s regulatory system had become overly complex and insufficiently proportionate, calling for a radical reset – including a thorough review of regulatory guidance to restore a genuinely non-prescriptive system aligned with a revised understanding of tolerability of risk (Recommendation 7).
Alongside this, the Taskforce’s Recommendation 6 called on government to take responsibility for defining the tolerability of risk for the nuclear sector, and the findings of an expert advisory panel on this subject will directly inform the updated SAPs, ensuring that ONR’s risk framework reflects a modern and evidence-based approach that delivers meaningful safety benefits.
The SAPs revision also responds directly to Recommendation 5, which called for a reset of safety case development to eliminate duplication and embed simplicity – helping operators produce safety cases that are accurate, accessible and focused on genuine safety outcomes, rather than unnecessarily burdensome documentation that diverts effort away from where it adds real value.
Together, these reforms position the updated SAPs as a cornerstone of ONR’s commitment to being a modern, enabling regulator: one that supports safe and sustainable growth through positive nuclear safety outcomes and the efficient delivery of the UK’s most ambitious nuclear programme in a generation.
Colin Tait, ONR’s Director of Capability and Standards, said:
“The revision of our Safety Assessment Principles is one of the most significant steps ONR has taken in recent years to deliver clearer, more proportionate regulation that genuinely supports the safe and efficient delivery of nuclear in the UK – ensuring our guidance is fit for a new era of nuclear ambition while keeping the protection of workers and the public firmly at its heart.
“We want to hear from everyone with a stake in this – operators, developers, industry bodies, the public and beyond – because the breadth and quality of responses to this consultation will directly shape the final principles we publish, and the stronger and more diverse the feedback we receive, the better the SAPs will be for the whole sector.”
Have your say on the updated SAPs by completing the online form.
