Designs for nuclear stations clear first hurdle

Nuclear regulators, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environment Agency (EA), today announced that the first step of 'Generic Design Assessment' (GDA) was over.The assessment carried out on four designs submitted for new nuclear power stations had found no shortfalls at this stage - in terms of safety, security or the environment - that would prevent any of them from ultimately being constructed on licensed sites in the UK.

These findings are based on the claims made by the vendors for the designs, the basis of which will be assessed during the next steps of GDA.

The nuclear regulators have published a series of reports on their findings so far, maintaining transparency and openness in the GDA process. The reports can be viewed at http://www.hse.gov.uk/newreactors.

GDA has been set up to ensure that the safety, security and environmental aspects of new nuclear power stations are assessed early - at the design stage. The four designs subject to the initial assessment were:

* AECL's ACR 1000;

* EdF/Areva's EPR;

* General Electric-Hitachi's ESBWR; and

* Westinghouse's AP1000.