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The deregulation of the UK electricity market has been instrumental in bringing about considerable organisational change in the management of nuclear sites. This in turn has created new pressures on maintaining safety standards. It is these concerns that prompted the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate to introduce Licence Condition 36 which came into force in April 2000. This paper gives an insight into the thought processes that lay behind the introduction of Licence Condition 36 and discusses the key issues involved.

The versatile intermediate pulse experimental reactor (VIPER), first commissioned in 1967, has successfully emerged from its latest four-yearly major maintenance shutdown. The extensive strip and rebuild of the reactor found no indication of any life-limiting features. Expected life was estimated to be at least another 20 years. Many changes have occurred which have affected the reactor in recent years, the two key changes being contractorisation of AWE and losing Crown immunity, and thus raising the need to obtain a nuclear site licence and to meet numerous regulatory requirements. This paper covers a brief description of the reactor, its recent major shutdown, the impact of licensing, present capabilities and future plans.