Four companies that have submitted new nuclear reactor designs for approval by the UK authorities have passed the first stage in the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process.
EDF-Areva, GE-Hitachi, Westinghouse and AECL have been told by government agencies that their reactor designs have passed initial assessments. The companies are now expected to tell the government whether they wish to proceed to the next stage of GDA.
The three-and-a-half year GDA process will determine whether the designs submitted can be deployed in the UK.
The UK’s Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency say that they have found no shortfalls at this stage in terms of safety, security or the environment in any of the designs. Their findings have been published on the Web.
The four reactor designs submitted for GDA are AECL’s ACR1000, Areva’s EPR, GE-Hitachi’s ESBWR and Westinghouse’s AP1000. The government may cut one design from the running in order to expedite and streamline the GDA process.
The companies that have submitted the four designs must now tell the government if they wish to proceed to the next stage of the assessment.UK passes first step in nuclear GDA
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