Nuclear Consulting Limited

Safety, Regulation and Assurance

A safety case has to persuade a regulator that the evidence holds. NCL’s experts write, verify and defend safety cases and guide clients through licensing, permitting and regulatory engagement.

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Electrical and control equipment on a plant floor

Our safety case authors work alongside former regulators who have assessed submissions from the other side. Together they cover gigawatt new build, operating plant, naval bases and legacy facilities. They test whether a submission is ready before the regulator sees it.

Practice Services

Safety Cases and Safety Assessment

Structuring the argument and testing whether the evidence holds

We prepare, verify and support safety cases for new reactors, operating plant, defence facilities and legacy waste facilities, with services that include deterministic and probabilistic assessment, hazard identification and categorisation, ALARP and BAT demonstrations and the assessment of modifications.

Example

Safety Cases and Safety Assessment

Fifteen years of continuous safety case, licence condition compliance and peer review support on the first UK new build in a generation. The assessment-entry submission for a novel reactor design, authored at short notice.

Licensing and Permitting

Site licensing, environmental permitting and regulatory strategy

We support nuclear site licence applications, environmental permits and regulatory strategy, including engagement with ONR, the Environment Agency, SEPA and international regulators. Our team includes former regulators and licensee specialists.

Example

Licensing and Permitting

Four years embedded in a new build developer’s legal team supporting the site licence application, environmental permits and regulator liaison.

Regulatory Transformation and Consenting

Consenting and regulatory reform

We support development consent, environmental assessment and the reform of regulatory arrangements for infrastructure programmes and regulators, with Collaborative Environmental Advisers contributing specialist expertise where consenting is central to the assignment.

Example

Regulatory Transformation and Consenting

Planning and site selection assurance for the first UK new build since the 1980s and advice to the government department on the regulator’s mandate.

Security, Safeguards and Emergency Preparedness

Security planning, threat assessment, safeguards and emergency arrangements

We develop security cases and site security plans, assess threats and support safeguards and emergency preparedness, working with Global Nuclear Security Partners. Emergency arrangements address the applicable REPPIR and nuclear site licence requirements.

Human Factors and Human Reliability

Safety-critical task analysis, human reliability and interface design

We integrate human factors into new designs, legacy reinstatement and operating plant. The work covers task analysis, human reliability assessment and control room and interface design, with an issues register that carries findings into the safety case.

Example

Human Factors and Human Reliability

Human factors direction for the reinstatement of a 1980s legacy plant with unknown contents and a full integration cycle for a crane control upgrade on an operating PWR. Ten years of human factors and safety case assessment support to an international energy safety regulator, including site audit and incident investigation.

Independent Assurance and Readiness

Our specialists independently review safety cases, programmes and organisations. They assess readiness for regulatory submission, operation or investment and serve on standing review groups.

Example

Independent Assurance and Readiness

Membership of a national waste management organisation’s international safety assessment review group. A top-down review of a waste repository’s environmental safety case ahead of submission.

Nuclear new build construction site from the air

Case study

Fifteen Years on the First UK New Build in a Generation

NCL supplied safety case, regulatory, commissioning process and licence condition compliance support to a £44bn EPR new build programme for fifteen years, alongside technical leadership for its £125m digital transformation programme.

Related Insights and Practices

Temelín nuclear power station, CzechiaRoutes to design approval: GDA or site licence?15 September 2026Two roads marked time and costPutting the R back into ALARP: the taskforce has spoken, what now?29 September 2026Digital representation of the STEP fusion site at West BurtonFusion as a generational reset for nuclear regulation6 October 2026

Related practicesWaste, decommissioning and legacyDigital deliveryProjects and programmes

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Contact

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