Nuclear Future Volume 9 issue 1 UK news Please send your news to
nuclearfuture@barkerbrooks.co.uk GDA starts for Hitachi-GE’s ABWR
The UK government has asked regulators to start the generic design assessment (GDA) process for Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy’s advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR), which has been proposed for construction at sites in England and Wales. The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and the Environment Agency said minister of state for energy, John Hayes, had
made a formal request for the GDA process to begin. In December, regulators confirmed acceptance of EDF and
Areva’s European Pressurised Water Reactor design for the UK. This is the first design to complete the UK’s GDA process with the award of a Design Acceptance Confirmation from the UK’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and a Statement of Design Acceptability (SoDA) from the Environment Agency. The completion of the GDA signals the final regulatory step for the design, although various site-specific consents and approvals, plus planning permission, will be needed before construction can begin. The GDA has taken five years to complete in a programme
covering 17 technical areas. The open and transparent process required reactor designers to publish their safety design cases and environmental reports and open them up to public comment. Regular bulletins and updates have been published on the process, as well as all GDA guidance and technical reports. ONR estimates that the GDA process for EPR has involved 27,000 days of assessment time and literally thousands of technical documents. The cost of around £35 million per reactor design is charged back to the design companies.
Dry fuel store at Sizewell-B
Work to build a new dry fuel store at the single-unit Sizewell-B nuclear power station in Suffolk, England, has begun and is scheduled to be completed in about two years, EDF Energy has announced. According to EDF Energy, the dry fuel
store will provide capacity for Sizewell-B’s spent fuel from 2015 for the lifetime of the power station or until a deep geological disposal facility is available. Under existing arrangements, all spent fuel from the
1,188-megawatt pressurised water reactor, which began commercial operation in September 1995, is stored in a fuel storage pond. However, this is expected to reach capacity in 2015. EDF Energy said that planning permission for the dry fuel store
was granted in July 2011. However, when planning permission was granted, it was subject to a number of planning conditions which had to be met before work could begin.
Background – the GDA process
In their contributions to the Government’s Energy Review, ONR and Environment Agency set out proposals to assess new nuclear reactor designs, in advance of any site-specific proposals to build a nuclear power station. The process became known as Generic Design Assessment (GDA). GDA key benefits: • It allows the regulators to get involved with designers at the earliest stage, where they have most influence.
• It is a step-wise process, with the assessments getting increasingly detailed. This allows the regulators to identify issues early in the process and reduce the financial and regulatory risks for potential operators.
• It separates design issues from specific site related issues, improving the overall efficiency of the regulatory process.
• It is open and transparent. The public can view detailed design information on the web and comment on it. The regulators also give regular feedback on how assessments are progressing and publish reports at the end of key stages.
The regulators conduct their assessments using a step- wise approach with the assessments becoming increasingly detailed at each step. At the end of each step reports are published, which provide an update on the detailed technical assessment undertaken by the nuclear assessors. The reports highlight any concerns or technical issues that have been raised during the assessment. ONR carries out its assessment in four steps, while the Environment Agency's process consists of a preliminary and detailed assessment followed by a consultation. At the end of the GDA process, the Regulators will decide if the proposed designs are acceptable for build in the UK. For further details visit
www.hse.gov.uk/newreactors
06 UK news
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