Nuclear Installations Act 1965

Control of certain nuclear installations and operations

1 Restriction of certain installations to licensed sites

(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 nuclear reactor (other than such a reactor comprised in a means of transport, whether by land, water or air); or

(b) subject to subsection (2) of this section, 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) Regulations made by virtue of paragraph (b) of the foregoing subsection may exempt, or make provision for exempting, from the requirements of that subsection, either unconditionally or subject to prescribed conditions, any installation which the Minister is satisfied is not, or if the prescribed conditions were complied with would not be, a relevant installation.

(3) Any person who contravenes subsection (1) of this section shall be guilty of an offence and be liable—

(a) on summary conviction, 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 five hundred pounds, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or to both.

2 Prohibition of certain operations except under permit

(1) 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.

(2) Any person who contravenes the foregoing subsection shall be guilty of an offence and be liable—

(a) on summary conviction, 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 five hundred pounds, or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or to both.