Second phase of assessment on new nuclear reactor for UK begins
The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and the Environment Agency announced they are progressing their assessment of a new nuclear reactor design for the UK.
New nuclear reactor design for the UK
The ONR and the Environment Agency announced today that they are progressing to the next phase of their assessment of a new nuclear reactor design for the UK.
The assessment follows preparatory work by General Nuclear System Ltd (GNS) and the regulators. The process, known as Generic Design Assessment (GDA), allows the regulators to begin assessing the safety, security and environmental aspects of new reactor designs before site-specific proposals are brought forward.
In addition, GNS will be launching a comments process, which enables anyone to submit comments and questions about the reactor design to the company for their response.
Mike Finnerty, ONR’s Deputy Chief Inspector and Director of ONR’s New Reactors Division said:
The purpose of GDA is to determine whether the design meets the robust safety and security standards to make it suitable for use in the UK. I am satisfied that there are adequate project management and technical provisions in place to enter step 2 of the process and, as regulators, we can begin our technical assessment phase.
Steve Hardy, Environment Agency Nuclear Regulation Group Manager said:
In this GDA we’re assessing the environmental acceptability of a new reactor design from China, the UK HPR1000. We’ll identify any issues or concerns we have with the UK HPR1000 and work with GNS, China General Nuclear (CGN)/EDF’s company bringing this reactor to the UK, to make sure it understands our expectations and delivers a design that meets them.
We are beginning a process of robust scrutiny on which we will report our progress and findings. People can contribute to this work through the comments process that can be accessed from our websites.
Notes to editors
GDA is a joint process between the ONR and the Environment Agency.
GDA enables the nuclear regulators to assess the safety, security and environmental impacts of any new reactor designs at a generic level, before receiving an application to build a particular nuclear power station design at a specific location.
Due to the complexity and the level of scrutiny required in the GDA process it is expected to take around 4 years to complete, provided GNS meet the timetable for submissions and the submissions are of sufficient detail.
Bradwell Power Generation Company Ltd, a joint subsidiary of CGN and EDF, proposes to construct a new nuclear power station at their site next to the existing Magnox site at Bradwell in Essex
Read more about assessing nuclear power station designs
Read more about the GDA process on the joint regulators’ website.
Read more about General Nuclear System’s UK HPR1000.