Assessing New Nuclear Power Station Designs Generic Design Assessment of Hitachi- GE Nuclear Energy Limited's UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor Decision Document
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Assessing new nuclear power station designs Generic design assessment of Hitachi- GE Nuclear Energy Limited's UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor Decision document December 2017 The Environment Agency protects and improves the environment. We help people and wildlife adapt to climate change and reduce its impacts, including flooding, drought, sea level rise and coastal erosion. We improve the quality of our water, land and air by tackling pollution. We work with businesses to help them comply with environmental regulations. A healthy and diverse environment enhances people's lives and contributes to economic growth. We can’t do this alone. We work as part of the Defra group (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs), with the rest of government, local councils, businesses, civil society groups and local communities to create a better place for people and wildlife. Natural Resources Wales is the largest Welsh government sponsored body. We were formed in April 2013, largely taking over the functions of the Countryside Council for Wales, Forestry Commission Wales and the Environment Agency in Wales, as well as certain Welsh government functions. Natural Resources Wales’ purpose is to pursue sustainable management of natural resources in all of our work. Natural Resources Wales brings together the skills and expertise needed to ensure that we can operate effectively across our wide range of roles from adviser, facilitator, regulator and designator, to incident responder, partner and operator. Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales: GDA Decision Document for UK ABWR Page 2 of 228 Published by: Environment Agency Further copies of this report are available Horizon House, Deanery Road, from our publications catalogue: Bristol BS1 5AH www.gov.uk/government/publications Email: [email protected] or National Customer Contact Centre: and Environment Agency : 03708 506506 Natural Resources Wales Email: [email protected]. Cambria House, 29 Newport Road, Cardiff CF24 0TP or Email: [email protected] Natural Resources Wales: 0300 065 3000 Email: [email protected] © Environment Agency 2017 © Natural Resources Wales 2017 All rights reserved. This document may be reproduced with prior permission of the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales. Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales: GDA Decision Document for UK ABWR Page 3 of 228 Foreword We, the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, are the independent environmental regulators for nuclear sites in England and Wales respectively. We work to create better places for people and wildlife, and support sustainable development. This includes our environmental regulation of nuclear power stations to ensure that they meet the high standards that we expect. We are pleased to introduce this document that sets out our conclusions and decisions on the acceptability of Hitachi-GE’s UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (UK ABWR) following our generic design assessment (GDA) of this reactor design. We have decided to issue a statement of design acceptability (SoDA) for Hitachi-GE's UK ABWR. This document explains the reasons for our decision and provides responses to the matters that were raised when we consulted on the preliminary findings of our assessment. We are grateful for all who took the time to attend our consultation events and to provide us with responses. In making our decision, we have carefully considered all of the comments that we have received. GDA is a joint process of the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the UK regulator for nuclear safety and security, and the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, the environmental regulators for England and Wales respectively. We are working together to ensure that any new nuclear power stations built in England and Wales meet high standards of safety, security, environmental protection and waste management. The objectives of our GDA process and assessments are to: • have an early influence on potential reactor designs that might be built in England and Wales so that we can be confident that they will meet high standards of safety, security, environmental protection and waste management • provide potential developers and investors in any new nuclear stations with our views about the designs, so reducing potential programme risks arising from regulatory scrutiny • conduct, subject to normal national and commercial security constraints, an open and transparent process of assessment • foster and provide effective and efficient working by the nuclear regulators not just in GDA, but in our future work together permitting, licensing and regulating potential new nuclear power stations in England and Wales • contribute to government's growth initiatives, by growing potential investors' understanding and confidence in our expectations and regulatory approach for new nuclear build The GDA programme is meeting these objectives. The publication of this document sees the completion of a programme of work that the regulators and Hitachi-GE began in early 2014. We thank our and ONR's staff for their hard work, enthusiasm and dedication over this period of assessment. We similarly thank Hitachi-GE and its staff for how they have responded to our many questions and challenges and for coming to understand our regulatory expectations and culture in the UK. It is all of this effort that has enabled us to come to the view that the UK ABWR is suitable for construction in the UK. We look forward to dealing with proposals for construction of the UK ABWR at Wylfa and Oldbury. Toby Willison Tim Jones Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales: GDA Decision Document for UK ABWR Page 4 of 228 Executive Director Operations Executive Director Operations North and Mid Wales Environment Agency Natural Resources Wales Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales: GDA Decision Document for UK ABWR Page 5 of 228 Executive summary About generic design assessment (GDA) 1. The UK government’s energy policy (GB Parliament, 2008a) identifies that nuclear power could play a vital role, alongside gas and renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, in making sure that the UK has enough low-carbon electricity in the future. 2. As regulators of the nuclear industry, we, the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales and the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), are working together to make sure that any new nuclear power stations built in the UK meet high standards of safety, security, environmental protection and radioactive waste management. 3. The regulators have developed an assessment process - generic design assessment (GDA), which enables us to begin scrutinising the acceptability of new nuclear power station designs at an early stage, in advance of construction beginning. For the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, it means we can identify early any potential design or technical issues or concerns relating to environmental matters, protection or performance, that we are responsible for regulating. We can then ask the ‘requesting party’ (the organisation submitting the design for GDA, usually the reactor designer) to address and resolve these issues. Similarly for ONR, GDA means it can identify issues and concerns relating to the safety and security of a design that it regulates for the requesting party to address and resolve. 4. Because Natural Resources Wales and the Environment Agency have made their decision together, the GDA outcome applies in both England and Wales. References to 'we' and 'our' throughout this document refer to both the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, unless specified otherwise. 5. We carry out the GDA process in 2 stages: initial assessment and detailed assessment. 6. There are 3 possible outcomes for a GDA. 1. If we are fully content with the environmental aspects of the design, we provide the requesting party with a statement of design acceptability (SoDA). 2. If we are largely content with the environmental aspects of the design, we provide the requesting party with an interim statement of design acceptability (iSoDA) that specifies the outstanding GDA Issues. We will only do this if the requesting party is able to provide a credible resolution plan that identifies how it will address each of the GDA Issues. A full SoDA may replace an iSoDA once we are content that all the GDA Issues have been resolved. 3. If we are not content with the environmental aspects of the design, we do not provide a SoDA or iSODA to the requesting party. Where we issue a SoDA or iSoDA we will also likely identify ‘Assessment Findings’ for resolution by developers/operators at a later stage, for example, during procurement or commissioning. – A GDA Issue is an unresolved issue that is significant, but resolvable, and which requires resolution before construction of the reactor starts. The company must publish a ‘resolution plan’ setting out how it will address the issue. All GDA Issues must be resolved to the satisfaction of the regulators before GDA can be completed. – An Assessment Finding is an unresolved issue that is not considered critical to the decision to start construction - it will need to be addressed during the design, procurement, construction or commissioning phase of the new build project. Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales: GDA Decision Document for UK ABWR Page 6 of 228 About GDA for Hitachi-GE's UK ABWR design 7. Hitachi-GE submitted its UK ABWR design for GDA in December 2013. It published the submission on its website and invited people to comment on it. Hitachi-GE has revised the submission during GDA; the current version on the website is up to date and is the basis of our detailed assessment (Appendix 3). 8. We completed our initial assessment of the UK ABWR and published our Initial Assessment Report in August 2014. 9. We carried out our detailed assessment of the UK ABWR and consulted on our preliminary conclusions, as set out in the consultation document we published (Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, 2016a), from 12 December 2016 to 3 March 2017.