UK HPR1000 Generic Design – Copyright CGNONR has completed Step 3 of the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) of the UK HPR1000 design, and taken the decision to progress to Step 4 of the GDA.
During Step 3, ONR increased its regulatory scrutiny and undertook a more detailed assessment of the design, focusing on the methods and approaches used by the GDA Requesting Party1 to underpin their safety and security claims.
The outcome from our Step 3 assessment is that sufficient progress has been made to move into the next assessment stage. A report summarising our assessment has been published on our website.
Ana Gomez-Cobo, ONR's Head of UK HPR1000 Regulation said:
"The objective for GDA is to provide confidence that the proposed design is capable of being constructed, operated and decommissioned in accordance with the standards of safety, security and environmental protection required in Great Britain.
"During Step 3 of GDA we have undertaken assessment work across 19 technical disciplines and covered topics of a cross-cutting nature.
"Our assessment to date has not identified any fundamental safety or security shortfalls that would prevent us issuing a Design Acceptance Confirmation (DAC) for the UK HPR1000 design.
"However, we have identified a number of areas for which further substantiation is needed from the Requesting Party; these have been captured as Regulatory Observations.
"Although progress so far is encouraging, a lot of work by the Requesting Party is still required. We will continue to rigorously assess safety and security submissions throughout Step 4 of GDA."
For more information on the GDA process, visit the joint regulators website.
1 General Nuclear System Ltd is a UK-registered company that was established to implement the GDA on the UK HPR1000 reactor on behalf of three joint requesting parties, i.e. China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN), EDF SA and General Nuclear International (GNI).
Homepage image copyright CGN.