asked Her Majesty's Government:
How they propose that the aim of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of nuclear development projects, including safety and pre-licensing, as agreed by the Prime Minister and President Sarkozy in March 2008, is to be achieved. [HL3096]
A number of measures are being implemented to take forward the agreement between the Prime Minister and President Sarkozy.
The Health and Safety Executive and the ASN (French nuclear regulator) will seek to share experience and technical findings from the safety/security assessment of the EPR design during generic design assessment and licensing. In addition they will look for opportunities for exchange of specialist staff both in terms of secondments and short-term attachments or visits.
This collaboration will help the regulators in meeting their challenging GDA completion targets—and thus give greater confidence that new nuclear power stations will be up and running in line with our energy targets.
asked Her Majesty's Government:
How it is intended that the United Kingdom will work more closely with France on civil nuclear issues, and in particular how the regulators in the two countries will work closely together to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the nuclear design licensing process, as discussed by the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, John Hutton, and the French Energy Minister, Monsieur Borloo, on 27 March. [HL3097]
We and the Health and Safety Executive continue to explore the opportunities for close working and information-sharing between the UK and the French regulators, in particular where both regulators are engaged in regulatory assessments of the same reactor designs.
Several measures are being taken to develop closer working between the UK and French regulators, including secondments between the two organisations and putting arrangements in place to facilitate the sharing of assessments and technical investigations.
We will continue to explore further opportunities for close working with the French and other international regulators.