A recent online article made a series of claims about ONR and our assessment of the Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy UK advanced boiling water reactor (UK ABWR) design between 2013-17.
The opinion piece claimed we had ‘demanded a series of changes…over the course of a four-and-a-half year process’ including ‘installation of expensive, bulky filters to cut radiation exposure during routine operation…to 0.0001 millisieverts per year – the amount a human ingests when they consume a banana.’
Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy and its UK consultants undertook their own review of the proposed reactor's Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems and unilaterally concluded it was appropriate for the UK-ABWR to utilise the filters referred to. The decision to modify the design was made early on in the GDA process. The ‘four and a half years’ referred to was the total duration of the design assessment of the UK ABWR.
In normal operation, the radioactive doses from a modern nuclear power plant are very small and within legal limits. The impact on radiation exposure of the design change in normal operation was therefore also very small - but this was not the only justification for proposing these design changes.
We thought we should offer this clarification…but more importantly…please continue to enjoy your bananas!