Blog posted by: Environment
Agency, Posted on: 3 April 2023
The Environment Agency’s New Reactors Assessment Team is
leading the assessment of the Rolls-Royce SMR nuclear power
station design. Andrew Pynn, Senior Advisor for the project,
highlights the benefits of generic design assessment (GDA) and
what happens next for this innovative new design.
New nuclear power stations are an important part of the
government’s plans for generating secure low carbon energy. Just
last week the government launched its ‘Powering Up Britain’
plan and ‘Great British Nuclear’ which will start to
deliver the ambition to build up to 24GWe of nuclear capacity by
2050.
At the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, the work
delivered by our nuclear regulators is all about protecting
communities and the environment. We’ve been looking at the
Rolls-Royce SMR design to determine if it is environmentally
acceptable for England and Wales.
After a year of learning about this new design and reviewing
information provided by Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd, we’ve completed the
preparatory step of our Generic Design Assessment and declared
that the company is ready to start
Step 2 today.
Working in partnership
The UK’s nuclear regulators work together, assessing designs at
an early stage, before construction begins. Doing it early means
we can spot any design issues that might impact on the
environment and ask Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd’s designers to address
them.
The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) cover the safety and
security whilst we and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) focus on
protection of the environment and radioactive waste.
The regulators have set up a joint programme office to help
deliver the GDA and our teams work together in person and
virtually as part of a single project. Our communications and
engagement with stakeholders is also joined up and we’ve set
up joint webpages to
provide information about GDA
What happens in Step 2?
The GDA process has up to 3 steps, with our assessment getting
more detailed as we progress. Now we’ve moved to Step 2 our team
of nuclear regulators and scientists will be scrutinising even
more information from Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd, identifying issues and
highlighting any concerns we have. Step 2 is when the first
technical assessment takes place and we focus on what features
and arrangements are in place to protect the environment. This
includes looking at how the design can be optimised to reduce the
amount of radioactive waste produced and how that waste is
managed and disposed of. We meet regularly with the company and
it’s at these meetings where we talk thorough what we’ve found
and make sure the Rolls-Royce engineers understand our
expectations.
Tell us and the company what you think
Now we’ve launched Step 2 it’s time for the public and
stakeholders to get involved. Engagement with communities is
important to us. Whilst we don’t yet know where this reactor
design could be located, Rolls Royce SMR Ltd has
highlighted some sites it is
interested in so we’ll start to focus our engagement
initially in those areas. We also want to hear from engineers,
academics, environmental groups, NGOs and others who are
interested in nuclear reactor designs and their impact on the
environment.
So how can you get involved? When we start a new GDA we ask the
reactor design company to set up a ‘comments process’. This
includes launching a website, providing information and asking
for feedback on the design and information provided. Have a look
at Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd’s new website and
consider making a comment. We’ll see all your questions and
comments, and the answers provided by the company. Your comments
could help inform our assessments.
We’ll also hold a public consultation later in the process, if we
go into Step 3 of the GDA.
Read the
reports including a summary targeted at a non technical
audience!
Contact us for more information about this GDA. nuclear@environment-agency.gov.uk
