Regulatory independence and accountability: a survey of international nuclear regulatory regimes

Abstract

As the government of India considers development of an independent regulator for civil nuclear power, examples from other nations around the world, including those with established civil nuclear programmes and those now developing new nuclear, provide interesting insights and lessons to be learned. This paper compares the organisational structure of the Indian governmental agency, the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Authority, proposed in Bill No. 76 of 2011, with the organisational structures of independent national regulators of civil nuclear power programmes from the USA, the UK, Japan, the People’s Republic of China and the United Arab Emirates. The paper discusses where in the government the agency is housed, sources of authority, sources of funding, regulatory powers and functional independence, both from the government agency charged with developing civil nuclear power and from nuclear facility operators.