Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has undertaken a risk assessment of the impact of potential flooding caused by rising sea levels on nuclear power plants.

Nuclear site licence holders must meet robust standards, including keeping plants safe against the effects of flooding throughout their lifetime.

Site licensees are required to produce a fit for purpose assessment of flood risk to inform the detailed siting, design, management, and safety case requirements of any new nuclear facility, which is assessed by the UK’s independent regulators - the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and the environment agencies. This includes an assessment of all possible sources of flooding as well as coastal erosion risks and other climate change impacts.

The ONR and the environment agencies would not allow an installation to be built or to operate if they judged that it was not safe to do so.