The HSE and the Environment Agency developed the Generic Design Assessment or GDA process in response to a request from the Government following its 2006 Energy Review
In its contribution to the review, HSE prepared an expert report on the potential risks to health and safety that might arise from the energy options being considered by the Government, including nuclear power. The report considered how it would go about the appraisal of new nuclear reactor designs, in advance of any site-specific proposals to build a nuclear power station. The Environment Agency also provided a report on how it might consider reactor designs prior to site-specific applications for environmental permits being made.
In summary, HSE and the Environment Agency proposed that new nuclear power stations could be subject to a more methodical, better defined, multi stage assessment and licensing/permitting process, including an assessment process for generic designs.
The 2006 Energy Review concluded that nuclear power will have a role in the future UK generating mix, and proposed a number of initiatives to reduce the regulatory barriers for new nuclear build. In addition, the Government asked HSE and the other principal nuclear regulators (the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, and the Office for Civil Nuclear Security, OCNS – which has been part of HSE since April 2007) to implement a ‘pre-authorisation’ system for reactor designs to allow generic designs to be assessed in advance of any application to build a nuclear power station at a particular location.
The nuclear regulators subsequently worked together to devise such a pre-authorisation process, which they called Generic Design Assessment or GDA, and in January 2007, published a suite of guidance material on GDA for new nuclear power station designs. Following the publication of the guidance, a number of design companies then wrote to the regulators asking for their nuclear power station designs to be assessed under the new GDA process.
In May 2007 the Government published its Energy White Paper 'Meeting the Energy Challenge' , which covered a range of energy issues including nuclear power. At the same time, the Government published a consultation document 'The Future of Nuclear power', on the Government’s preliminary view that it is in the public interest to give private energy companies the option of investing in new nuclear power stations.
In the consultation document, the Government invited applications from companies interested in having their nuclear power station designs assessed. Potential applicants were asked to provide a letter of endorsement from a credible nuclear power operator, stating that they would be interested in building and operating the design in the UK.
In July 2007, the Government announced that four design companies - AECL, EDF/Areva, GE-Hitachi and Westinghouse, had made valid applications, and in August 2007 the Nuclear Regulators started the first stage in the assessment process for four designs (EDF/Areva's UK EPR, AECL's ACR-1000, GE's ESBWR, and Westinghouse's AP 1000). AECL subsequently withdrew from the process and GE has temporarily suspended its involvement.
Finally, in January 2008, the Government issued a White Paper on civil nuclear power: ‘Meeting the Energy Challenge – A White Paper on Nuclear Power’. This set out the rationale behind the Government’s decision to allow energy companies to invest in new nuclear power stations.
For more information on how we are progressing with our assessment work, and for the most recent developments, you can go to Progress so far.
