Skip to content

Westinghouse Report APP-GW-G1-011, Rev. 7, “AP1000 Plant Metrication Strategy and ALARP Assessment for the United Kingdom”

Date released
12 April 2024
Request number
202402060
Release of information under
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)

Information requested

Westinghouse Report APP-GW-G1-011, Rev. 7, “AP1000 Plant Metrication Strategy and ALARP Assessment for the United Kingdom'

Information released

We confirm that under s.1 of the FOIA, we hold the information in scope of your request.

In our previous correspondence to you, dated 12 March 2024, we set out that we were considering the public interest test in relation to the following exemption of the FOIA:

  • s.43; Commercial interests

S.43(1) provides an exemption from disclosure for information which is a trade secret, and s.43(2) exempts information whose disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it), both of which we believe apply to the information being requested.

The FOIA does not define the term ‘trade secret’. However, with reference to The Trade Secrets (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2018, the Commissioner considers that, to be a trade secret, information should:

  • be secret, in the sense that it is not generally known among, or readily accessible to, people within the circles that normally deal with that kind of information;
  • have a commercial value, because it is secret. Its disclosure should also be liable to cause real (or significant) harm to the owner or be advantageous to any rivals; and
  • be subject to reasonable steps under the circumstances, taken by the owner, to keep it secret.

Information pertaining to ‘trade secrets’ can be categorised into two groups; technical secrets (such an invention, manufacturing process, or engineering/design drawings) and business secrets (costing or pricing information, supplier lists and contact details, or plans for the development of new products).

We consider that the information contained within the requested report (discussed more fully in the context of the public interest test) clearly meets the above criteria for being a trade secret and/or in any event information whose disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice commercial interests.

However, as s.43 is a qualified exemption, we are required to balance the public interest between disclosure and non-disclosure. We have therefore applied the Public Interest Test and have set out factors for and against disclosure below.

Exemptions applied

s.43(1) s.43(2)

PIT (Public Interest Test) if applicable

Factors for disclosure

  • ONR is committed to being an open and transparent regulator. We will use openness and transparency to achieve our objective of developing and maintaining stakeholder trust in ONR as an effective independent regulator;
  • The public have a vested interest in issues related to the nuclear industry, facilitating accountability and transparency; and,
  • Issues related to the nuclear industry are subject to close scrutiny and debate, therefore there is a public interest in information related to nuclear activities and the release of such information.

Factors against disclosure

  • The commercial nuclear industry, and especially the market for new advanced reactors, is highly competitive. Westinghouse is actively competing for new build opportunities in many countries, including the United Kingdom. This includes opportunities for large-plant projects, such as the AP1000 design, and for small modular reactors (SMRs), where the Westinghouse AP300 design relies heavily on the AP1000 design, including the “quasi-metric” concept;
  • The novel concept of “quasi-metric” of nuclear power plant design and the definition of the optimum balance between metrication and maintenance of the country of origin units of design defined in the AP1000 plant metrication strategy qualifies as a technical secret as it is an invention or at a minimum, a particular way of doing something;
  • The development of the metrication strategy for a U.S. based original design was a significant and expensive effort that Westinghouse endeavoured to develop, including extensive ONR interfaces and costs, during the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process for the AP1000. Westinghouse has taken reasonable steps under the circumstances to keep its information secret, by only releasing in the public domain the information necessary to support the transparency of the GDA process, labelling the requested report as proprietary, and transmitting the report only under strict confidentiality obligations to select recipients;
  • Westinghouse operates in a highly competitive market, where price is often a deciding factor when securing contracts. It is within the public’s interest for companies to be able to invest in the sort of research and development needed for large scale nuclear projects, safe in the knowledge they will not be undercut by the fruits of that investment being made available at no cost to the world at large (and therefore, all of their competitors), and preserving the report in confidence would support the public interest in maintaining competition in the marketplace;
  • The release of this information would enable competitors to understand Westinghouse’s technical secrets, operating costs, pricing structures amongst other commercially sensitive information in much greater detail, providing an advantage which could arm competitors with ways to undercut them and win future tenders and undermine their ability to participate competitively in such a difficult market whilst enhancing the ability of competitors to provide similar or like services without going to the same time and monetary expense; and,
  • It is considered  that the level of detail included in the Generic Design Pre-Construction Safety Report (PCSR) already available to the public under the GDA process is sufficient to satisfy any public interest in information on this topic, including openness and transparency in government affairs, without compromising the integrity and value of this trade secret information.

Conclusion

ONR is committed to being an open and transparent regulator and operates on the basis of openness with a presumption to disclose information. We understand that the public has a vested interest in the nuclear industry, particularly in matters that are subject to close scrutiny and debate. However, there is a strong public interest in protecting the commercial interests of individual companies and organisations, and ensuring they are able to have a safe space away from public scrutiny to develop and share proprietary information without the fear of such information being disclosed. It is also within the public’s interest that fair investments for large scale nuclear projects are made, and for this to happen, it is necessary for the trade secrets of third parties to be kept as such to allow them to provide highly competitive services and compete in the market fairly without the risk of being undercut.

It is well known that a release under the FOIA is considered to be a ‘release to the world at large’, and as the report contains clear trade secrets, it should be accorded a high level of secrecy. It is considered that such an unrestricted release of the report would be likely to cause significant damage and prejudice to the commercial interests of Westinghouse, by revealing otherwise unknown commercial secrets. This would consequently result in reputational damage to ONR and a loss of confidence in the relationship between ONR and Westinghouse, as well as our other licensees.

Therefore, on this occasion, we have decided that the substantive arguments for non-disclosure, both in regards to the interests of the public as well as those of the commercial entity, outweigh the reasons for disclosure of the requested report. We strongly believe that the release of the information would be likely to prejudice the commercial interests of Westinghouse and as such, under s.43 of the FOIA, we are declining to release it.