Nuclear Installations (Licensing and Insurance) Act 1959
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
Nuclear Installations (Licensing and Insurance) Act, 1959
(7 & 8 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 46
An Act to make provision for the regulation of certain installations capable of emitting ionising radiations and with respect to the incidence of, and the provision of cover for, liability in respect of any such radiations emitted from, or in connection with the use of, any such installation; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Licensing of sites for nuclear installations.
(1) Without prejudice to the requirements of any other Act, no person other than the Authority shall use any site for the purpose of installing or operating—
(a ) any plant designed or adapted for the production of atomic energy by a fission process in which a controlled chain reaction can be maintained without an additional source of neutrons; or
(b ) any other installation of such class or description as may be prescribed, being an installation designed or adapted for—
(i) the production or use of atomic energy; or
(ii) the carrying out of any process which is preparatory or ancillary to the production or use of atomic energy and which involves or is capable of causing the emission of ionising radiations; or
(iii) the storage, processing or disposal of nuclear fuel or of bulk quantities of other radioactive matter, being matter which has been produced or irradiated in the course of the production or use of nuclear fuel,
unless a licence so to do (in this Act referred to as a ‘nuclear site licence’) has been granted in respect of that site by the Minister and is for the time being in force.
(2) Notwithstanding that a nuclear site licence is for the time being in force or is not for the time being required in respect thereof, no person other than the Authority shall use any site—
(a ) for any treatment of irradiated matter which involves the extraction therefrom of plutonium or uranium; or
(b ) for any treatment of uranium such as to increase the proportion of the isotope 235 contained therein,
except under, and in accordance with the terms of, a permit in writing for such a use of the site for purposes of research or development granted by the Authority or a government department; and any fissile material produced under such a permit shall be disposed of only in such manner as may be approved by the authority by whom the permit was granted.
(3) Two or more installations in the vicinity of one another may, if the Minister thinks fit, be treated for the purposes of the grant of a nuclear site licence as being on the same site.
(4) A nuclear site licence shall not be granted to any person other than a body corporate and shall not be transferable, and the Minister by instrument in writing—
(a ) shall on granting the licence, and may from time to time thereafter, attach to the licence such conditions as may appear to the Minister to be necessary or desirable in the interests of safety, whether in normal circumstances or in the event of any accident or other emergency on the site, which conditions may in particular include provision—
(i) for securing the maintenance of an efficient system for detecting and recording the presence and intensity of any ionising radiations from time to time emitted from anything on the site or from anything discharged on or from the site;
(ii) with respect to the design, siting, construction, installation, operation, modification and maintenance of any plant or other installation on, or to be installed on, the site;
(iii) with respect to preparations for dealing with, and measures to be taken on the happening of, any accident or other emergency on the site;
(iv) subject to the next following subsection, with respect to the discharge of any substance on or from the site;
(b ) may at any time attach to the licence such conditions as the Minister may think fit with respect to the handling, treatment and disposal of any nuclear fuel which becomes irradiated in the course of its use at the site;
and the Minister may at any time by a further instrument in writing vary or revoke any condition for the time being attached to the licence.
(5) Subsection (4) of section five of the Atomic Energy Authority Act, 1954 (which makes temporary provision with respect to the discharge of waste on or from premises occupied by the Authority) shall apply to any licensed site as it applies to such premises as aforesaid; and accordingly references in the penultimate paragraph of the said subsection (4) to the Authority and to their duty under subsection (3) of the said section five shall be construed as including respectively references to a licensee and to his duty under subsection (1) of section four of this Act.
(6) At all times while a nuclear site licence remains in force, the licensee shall cause copies of—
(a ) any conditions for the time being in force under subsection (4) of this section; and
(b ) any conditions or requirements subject to compliance with which any authorisation has been given in respect of the site under the provision applied by subsection (5) of this section,
to be kept posted upon the site, and in particular on any part thereof which an inspector may direct, in such characters and in such positions as to be conveniently read by persons having duties upon the site which are or may be affected by those conditions or requirements.
(7) Any person who contravenes subsection (1), subsection (2) or subsection (6) of this section and, in the event of—
(a ) any contravention of any condition attached to a nuclear site licence under subsection (4) of this section; or
(b ) any contravention in connection with a licensed site of the provision applied by subsection (5) of this section,
the licensee and any person having duties upon the site in question by whom that contravention was committed, shall be guilty of an offence and be liable—
(i) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to both;
(ii) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding five hundred pounds, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or to both;
and any person who without reasonable cause pulls down, injures or defaces any document posted in pursuance of subsection (6) of this section shall be guilty of an offence and be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five pounds.
2 Revocation and surrender of licences.
(1) A nuclear site licence may at any time be revoked by the Minister or surrendered by the licensee.
(2) Where a nuclear site licence has been revoked or surrendered, the licensee shall, if so required by the Minister, deliver up or account for the licence to such person as the Minister may direct, and shall during the remainder of the period of his responsibility cause to be kept posted upon the site such notices indicating the limits thereof in such positions as may be directed by an inspector; and the Minister may on the revocation or surrender and from time to time thereafter until the expiration of the said period give to the licensee such other directions as the Minister may think fit for preventing or giving warning of any risk of hurt to any person or damage to any property by ionising radiations from anything remaining on the site.
(3) In this Act the expression ‘period of responsibility’ in relation to the licensee under a nuclear site licence means, as respects the site in question or any part thereof, the period beginning with the grant of the licence and ending with whichever of the following dates is the earlier, that is to say—
(a ) the date when the Minister gives notice in writing to the licensee that in the opinion of the Minister there has ceased to be any danger from ionising radiations from anything on the site or, as the case may be, on that part thereof;
(b ) the date when a nuclear site licence in respect of the site or, as the case may be, that part thereof is granted to some other person.
(4) If the licensee contravenes any direction for the time being in force under subsection (2) of this section, he shall be guilty of an offence and be liable—
(a ) on summary conviction—
(i) in the case of a first offence under this subsection, to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds;
(ii) in the case of a second or subsequent offence under this subsection, to a fine not exceeding one hundred pounds, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months, or to both;
(b ) on conviction on indictment, to a fine not exceeding two hundred pounds, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or to both;
and any person who without reasonable cause pulls down, injures or defaces any notice posted in pursuance of subsection (2) of this section shall be guilty of an offence and be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding five pounds.
3 Supplementary provisions as to licensing of sites.
(1) Where in the case of an application for a nuclear site licence in respect of any site received by the Minister after the commencement of this Act it appears to the Minister appropriate so to do, he may direct the applicant to serve on such bodies of any of the following descriptions as may be specified in the direction, that is to say—
(a ) any local authority;
(b ) any river board, any local fisheries committee and any statutory water undertakers within the meaning of the Water Acts, 1945 and 1948;
(c ) any river purification board within the meaning of the Rivers (Prevention of Pollution) (Scotland) Act, 1951, any district...
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