THOUGHT LEADERSHIP · PUBLICATIONS

OFFSHORE FLOATING NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

The Preparedness of Great Britain’s Legal Safety Framework for Offshore Floating Nuclear Power Plants

An offshore floating nuclear power plant is a floating offshore installation equipped with a nuclear power plant which serves to provide electricity primarily to a nearby oil/gas producing offshore installation but may also power a drilling rig.

Michael Dickin has published a journal paper in the International Energy Law Review where he discusses the preparedness of Great Britain’s legal safety framework for offshore floating nuclear power plants to be operated offshore within its external waters.

This discussion provides two benefits:

• The first is guidance for the UK Government, UK Parliament and energy companies should they decide to explore this avenue.
• The second is perhaps not so intuitive; it will assist other coastal states (should they decide to permit offshore floating nuclear power plants in advance of Great Britain) to develop their own domestic legislation. With Great Britain’s codified experience in regulating nuclear sites and offshore installations, it is true that this experience will be taken into consideration by others.

• assessing the suitability of applying the existing legal safety framework for land-based nuclear power plants to an offshore floating nuclear power plant;
• assessing the suitability of applying the existing legal safety framework for offshore installations to an offshore floating nuclear power plant; and
• identifying factors which, due to the unique nature of an offshore floating nuclear power plant, have not been considered by either of the existing legal safety frameworks for land-based nuclear power plants or for offshore installations.