‘Lack Of Design Detail’ Hampers UK Reactor Assessment
Written by NucNet
Thursday, 24 June 2010
A lack of design detail is hampering assessment of the Areva-EDF UK EPR (European pressurised water reactor) and Westinghouse AP1000 reactor designs in the UK, particularly regarding detailed evidence supporting safety claims and arguments.
In a progress report for the period from 1 January 2010 to 31 March 2010, the UK’s joint regulators, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Environment Agency, said many issues remain open and require further work, but Areva-EDF and Westinghouse are making progress in addressing them.
“In a significant number of technical areas, the detailed evidence we would require to resolve all our technical issues does not yet exist and this may result in issues that will not be fully closed-out by June 2011,” a statement said.
“However, as we have always said, for the GDA (generic design assessment) to be successful our assessment must be meaningful, which means that the design companies must provide sufficient information for us to carry out a thorough and detailed assessment in all of the key technical topic areas.”
The next GDA major milestone is the Environment Agency’s consultation on its findings to date on environmental and radioactive waste matters. This is planned to start on the 28 June 2010 with the publication of consultation documents on each design.
The regulators said the progress report had been published late because of last month's election in the UK.
