Risk assessment in the UK nuclear power industry

The international workshop on "Promotion of Technical Harmonisation on Risk-Based Decision Making" investigated the use of risk-based decision making across a range of industries and countries throughout the world. This paper presents the contribution to the workshop covering risk assessment in the UK nuclear power industry. The format is a response to a set of questions prepared by the organisers of the workshop covering the use and performance of risk assessment, evaluation of the acceptability of the risk and the use of risk assessment in the decision making process. The possible need for a standard for risk based decision making is addressed and it is concluded that the benefits may be limited for the UK nuclear power industry and that there are many practical difficulties in introducing a harmonised standard across industries and countries. Crown Copyright (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.