ONR and the Environment Agency have undertaken a comprehensive assessment of the generic design safety, security and environment case for the UK EPR™ reactor, as summarised in our Step 4 reports.
We concluded that many aspects are adequate and that we are largely satisfied with the safety, security and environment aspects of the UK EPR™ reactor generic design. Nevertheless we also concluded that there are 31 GDA Issues remaining that must be addressed before GDA can be regarded as "complete". The background and details for these GDA Issues, and for their associated "issue actions", are described in detail in the Step 4 technical assessment reports.
In response to the GDA Issues, EDF and AREVA provided resolution plans that identify the details of how they intended to respond to the issues.
Our progress on assessing EDF and AREVA's responses to the GDA Issues is summarised in our quarterly progress reports. The timescale for these responses and our assessment of them is largely dependent on the work programmes of EDF and AREVA.
When we have received and assessed enough information to be satisfied that a GDA Issue has been addressed satisfactorily, we will write to inform EDF and AREVA. These GDA Issue closure letters will be provided in the table below, referenced against the original GDA Issue. We will update this table as further GDA Issues are closed. In addition, we will write reports summarising our assessment of the GDA Issue responses and publish these in the table below, as they are completed.
In addition to GDA Issues, there are a number of Assessment Findings identified in the Step 4 assessment reports for each technical topic area. These are primarily about ensuring the provision of additional safety case evidence to confirm certain safety aspects and they will be subject to normal regulatory oversight as new nuclear power station projects progress through the detailed design, construction and commissioning stages. Where GDA Issue closure assessment identifies additional assessment findings these will be detailed in the GDA Issue closure reports listed in the table below.
When all the GDA Issues have been addressed to our satisfaction we will be in a position to consider issue of a Design Acceptance Confirmation and Statement of Design Acceptability, which will be supported by final reports of our assessment. It is ONR's current intent that we will not grant Consent for nuclear island safety-related construction for a power station based on the UK EPR™ reactor generic design before the unresolved GDA Issues have been closed.
This table contains GDA Issues in order of closure, the most recent at the top.
Designs for potential new nuclear power stations - MISC790