What is Regulatory Justification?
The concept of Regulatory Justification is based on the internationally accepted principle of radiological protection. This states that no practice involving exposure to ionising radiation should be adopted unless it produces sufficient benefits to the exposed individuals or to society, to outweigh the health detriment it may cause.
This principle is derived from the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) and is included in the European Council Directive 96/29/Euratom of 13 May 1996. This sets the basic safety standards for protecting the health of workers and the general public against the dangers of ionising radiation.
In the UK, this principle is set out in the Justification of Practices Involving Ionising Radiation Regulations 2004. These regulations require any new class or type of practice involving ionising radiation (such as nuclear power stations) to undergo a generic, high-level pre-optimisation assessment of whether the social, economic or other benefits outweigh the health detriment.
Consultation
The public consultation on the Proposed Decisions as Justifying Authority that two new nuclear power station designs, Westinghouse’s AP1000 and AREVA’s EPR, are Justified under the Justification of Practices Involving Ionising Radiation Regulations 2004 closed on 22 February 2010.
Details of this consultation can be found on the Consultation on proposed Regulatory Justification decisions on new nuclear power stations (AP1000 and EPR) web page.
DECC previously published a public consultation (which closed on 25 March 2009) on an application from the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) for Regulatory Justification of a class or type of practice, including four nuclear reactor designs.
Details of this consultation, and responses to it, can be found on the Consultation on the Nuclear Industry Association's application to justify new nuclear power stations web page.
Determinations on Class or Type of Practice
Before a decision can be taken on whether or not a class or type of practice is Justified under the Regulations, he must first determine what the class or type of practice described in the NIA’s application is, and whether it is capable of being considered as a new class or type of practice for the purposes of the Regulations. These determinations, and the reasons for these determinations, are published:
Justifying Authorities
There are four Justifying Authorities in the UK, namely: the Secretary of State and the three Devolved Administrations. Since nuclear energy has not been devolved to any of the Devolved Administrations, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change is the sole Justifying Authority in this case and any decision will be UK-wide.
Guidance
Guidelines for the general application of the 2004 Justification Regulations is available at The Justification of Practices Involving Ionising Radiation Regulations 2004; Guidance on their application and administration.
In March 2008, guidelines were issued to provide specific advice to anyone seeking a Regulatory Justification decision in relation to new nuclear power: The Justification of Practices Involving Ionising Radiation Regulations 2004: Guidance for applications relating to new nuclear power.
Justification Co-ordination Committee (JCC)
We have set up the Justification Co-ordination Committee (JCC) to help co-ordinate the views on the Regulatory Justification process of the Devolved Administrations, the Statutory Consultees and other experts.. The Committee includes DECC, the Statutory Consultees for the Regulatory Justification process (the Health and Safety Executive, Food Standards Agency, Health Protection Agency, Environment Agency, Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Department of the Environment, Northern Ireland), the Devolved Administrations, the Department for Transport and the Department of Health.
You can read minutes from the JCC meetings here:
For more information, please contact the DECC Justification Assessment Centre on 0300 068 5869/5870 or email justification@decc.gsi.gov.uk