The Environment Agency has set out a Nuclear Transformation Programme to implement the Nuclear Regulatory Review, aiming to make nuclear regulation faster, more predictable and proportionate while maintaining environmental protection and public confidence. The agency says it has combined its nuclear strategy and regulatory functions under a single leadership structure reporting to the Chief Regulator and is creating a dedicated Deputy Director for Nuclear Transformation. The Environment Agency became Defra’s Lead Environmental Regulator (LER) for Sizewell C in April 2026. The pilot is testing coordination, escalation, issue resolution, proportionality and developer engagement across regulators while preserving their independence. Its pilot phase ends in December 2026, with final evaluation scheduled for April 2027. The agency says the approach has already supported early submission of Sizewell C’s main site dewatering licence and progress on critical water-supply approvals. Wider reforms cover radioactive-waste management, site release, permitting, decommissioning, regulatory coordination and specialist capability. The agency says permitting queue times are at a three-year low, the backlog has fallen by more than three-quarters and complex application determination times have been reduced by up to 100 days. It aims to determine 95% of permits within target timescales by October 2028. Proposed changes to Generic Design Assessment (GDA), including greater use of international regulatory reviews, aim to cut assessment times by up to 50%; current analysis suggests mature reactor designs could see regulatory assessment costs fall by about 20% in cash terms. Decommissioning reforms are expected to save taxpayers around £500 million over the next 20 years.