The Environment Agency, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR)
and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) announced today that they are
progressing to the next phase of their assessment of Rolls-Royce
SMR Ltd’s 470 MW Small Modular Reactor (SMR) design.
The process, known as Generic Design Assessment (GDA), allows the
regulators to begin assessing the safety, security, safeguards
and environmental aspects of new reactor designs before
site-specific proposals are brought forward.
Step 1 of the GDA began in April 2022 and this stage has now been
successfully completed following preparatory work by Rolls-Royce
SMR Ltd and the regulators.
Today also marks the start of Step 2 which is expected to last
for 16 months.
Step 1 has involved agreeing the scope of the GDA which has been
based on information supplied by Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd to ONR, the
Environment Agency and NRW so the regulators can undertake a
meaningful assessment of the design.
During the past year, Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd has completed all the
requirements for Step 1 from the regulators’ guidance with good
progress made in developing its organisation and arrangements to
support GDA.
Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd has now launched a comments process on its
new website, which enables anyone to submit comments and
questions about the reactor design to the company for its
response.
Relevant issues raised during the comments process, and
Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd’s responses to these issues, will be used to
help inform the regulators’ assessments throughout the rest of
the GDA process.
Andrew Pynn, the Environment Agency’s Strategy and Policy Lead
for the Rolls-Royce SMR GDA, said:
We’re assessing the environmental acceptability of a new reactor
design from Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd. Our team of specialist assessors
will identify any issues or concerns we have with the design and
will work with the company to make sure it understands our
expectations to ensure the protection of communities and the
environment.
GDA is an enabling and efficient approach, helping to ensure that
new nuclear power stations will meet high standards of safety,
security, environmental protection and waste management.
During Step 1 we’ve studied the company’s arrangements, plans and
readiness for Step 2 and learnt more about the reactor design. In
our Step 1 statement we’ve summarised what we have looked at and
concluded that we can progress to Step 2 of GDA where we will
begin our fundamental assessment.
Public and stakeholder engagement is important to us. We’re
encouraging people to get involved in the comments process, which
begins today, by reviewing the information on the company’s
website and providing your comments which are viewed by the
regulators.
We’ll be engaging continually with stakeholders and public and we
will carry out a consultation as we step through the regulatory
process.
Rob Exley, ONR’s Head of Generic Design Assessment, said:
The purpose of GDA is to determine whether the design meets our
robust safety, security, safeguards and environmental protection
standards in Great Britain.
We are working together with the Environment Agency and NRW to
ensure Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd understand and meet our regulatory
expectations for its proposed reactor design.
As nuclear regulators, we recognise that we are acting in the
interests of the public and, as such, this period of scrutiny
will be open, transparent and provide regular opportunities for
meaningful engagement with interested parties throughout the GDA
process.
ONR is satisfied that Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd has adequate
arrangements to support GDA. We have agreed an appropriate scope
for GDA, for which the company has provided an appropriate
submission schedule and a resourced organisation to deliver it.
As regulators, we can now begin our technical assessment phase.
Based on our work during Step 1, the generic Rolls-Royce SMR
design can proceed to Step 2 of the GDA.
Natural Resources Wales is also involved in the GDA process and
will be leading on engagement with people in Wales.
Paul Gibson, the Radioactivity & Industry Policy Team Leader
from Natural Resources Wales, said:
We are working closely with the Environment Agency and the Office
for Nuclear Regulation as part of the process to determine the
acceptability of the Rolls-Royce SMR design which potentially
could be sited in Wales.
The GDA process focuses on the design of a generic nuclear power
station and is not site-specific.
The process is systematic and contains a number of steps, with
the assessment getting increasingly detailed as the process
develops.
A Design Acceptance Confirmation (DAC) or Statement of Design
Acceptability (SoDA), from ONR and the environmental regulators
respectively, will only be issued at the end of Step 3 of the GDA
if the design meets the high safety, security, safeguards,
environmental protection and waste management standards expected
by our regulatory frameworks.
These regulatory judgements do not guarantee the granting of a
site licence or subsequent permissions issued under the
conditions of a site licence for the construction of a power
station based on the Rolls-Royce SMR design at a particular site
in Great Britain.
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