In December 2011, ONR and the Environment Agency granted interim design acceptance to the generic designs for two nuclear reactors proposed for construction in the UK.
Interim Design Acceptance Confirmations and interim Statements of Design Acceptability will be issued by the regulators once they have completed the planned assessment of the safety cases for the generic designs. By issuing the interim documents, ONR and the Environment Agency confirm they are satisfied with how designers plan to resolve a number of remaining issues.
Neither reactor can be built in the UK until these issues are resolved.
Having completed the planned assessment of the safety cases for the generic designs, the regulators published reports on their respective websites for each design summarising the basis of their decision, together with their technical assessment reports. They have also published documents explaining how the designers plan to resolve issues identified in a report written by the UK's chief inspector of nuclear installations, Mike Weightman, on the Fukushima accident.
Designs for potential new nuclear power stations - MISC790