Nuclear Regulators launch ABWR environmental consultation
The Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales are consulting from today on their assessment of a new nuclear power station design from Nuclear Energy (Hitachi-GE). Hitachi-GE’s UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (UK ABWR) will be the focus of the consultation as part of the regulators’ assessment of the design prior to deployment in the UK.
Generic Design Assessment – a joint process undertaken by the Office for Nuclear Regulation, the Environment Agency, and Natural Resources Wales – aims to ensure that new nuclear power stations built in the UK meet the high standards of safety, security, environmental protection and waste management.
The consultation seeks the public’s views on the preliminary conclusions of the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales regarding the environmental aspects of the design, explaining how they’ve conducted their assessment, their findings from the assessment and what will happen next.
Saffron Price Walter, GDA manager at the Environment Agency said, “It is our job to ensure that any new nuclear power station will meet high standards of environmental protection and waste management.”
“This consultation sets out our findings so far and identifies where we require further work to be carried out by Hitachi-GE. After consultation we’ll carefully consider all the consultation responses we receive, complete our detailed assessment and make our decision about the acceptability of the UK ABWR design.”
President and Representative Director of Hitachi-GE, Hidetoshi Takehara, told Nuclear Matters, “The consultation is another great opportunity to engage with the assessment, to make comments and ask questions. We have worked hard with the regulators for nearly four years to facilitate their assessment of our design – we are pleased that EA and NRW are ready to put their preliminary finding to the public for comment.”
“The UK ABWR is a tried, tested and proven operational design. We look forward to sustained progress through GDA, and are optimistic that UK ABWRs will play a vital role in providing clean, secure and affordable energy to the UK in the years ahead.”
Alongside the consultation, Hitachi-GE has also published its latest environmental submissions at: http://www.hitachi-hgne-uk-abwr.com/gda_library.html
The consultation itself runs for 12 weeks until 3 March 217 and can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/gda-of-hitachi-ge-nuclear-energy-ltds-uk-advanced-boiling-water-reactor