EA to consult on Generic Design Assessment for new reactor

The Environment Agency (EA) has revealed details of a consultation on the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) for the UK version of Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy’s Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR).

Horizon Nuclear Power is planning to deploy two of the reactors at the Wylfa Newydd plant it is developing on the Isle of Anglesey in North Wales as well as at the Oldbury plant it is developing in Gloucestershire.  

The aim of the consultation is to “help inform” the final decision, make it as “robust as possible”, and “strengthen the trust and confidence” that stakeholders have in the EA as a regulator.

Among the stakeholders it is looking to hear from are elected representatives, academics, residents living near existing or proposed nuclear plants and the nuclear industry itself. In addition to gauging the views of stakeholders, it said also wants to explain how the assessment is being conducted, how their findings can be understood and what will happen once the decision is made.

The GDA is the process by which the nuclear regulators (the EA and the Office for Nuclear Regulation) assess the “security and environmental implications of new reactor designs, separately from applications to build them at specific sites”.

Hitachi-GE’s ABWR began undergoing the GDA process in January 2014. The EA’s consultation will begin on 12 December 2016 and conclude on 3 March 2017.

Last month Horizon Nuclear Power concluded the second and final stage of its public consultation on the Wyfla Newydd plant it is planning to build on Anglesey. The feedback it received is now being analysed as it prepares to submit the planning application for the plant – known as a Development Consent Order – sometime next year.

Earlier this week EDF revealed details of the second stage of a public consultation on the Sizewell C nuclear plant it is developing in Suffolk.