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The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) have announced that they are progressing to the next step of their assessment of Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd’s 470 MWe small modular reactor (SMR) design.
The generic design assessment (GDA) process allows the regulators to begin assessing the safety, security, safeguards and environmental aspects of new reactor designs before site-specific proposals are brought forward.
The Rolls-Royce SMR's GDA began in April 2022 with a year-long initiation step, followed by a 16-month assessment looking at the fundamentals of the design.
Step two has now been completed, leading to the granting – for the first time since the new GDA process was launched – of step two GDA statements. They now move on to the third and final step: detailed assessment.
Helena Perry, Rolls-Royce SMR’s safety and regulatory affairs director, said: “The completion of step two of the GDA is the most important milestone to date in advancing deployment of Rolls-Royce SMRs in the UK. We have built fantastic momentum, and the team will move directly into Step 3 of this rigorous independent assessment of our technology – ideally positioning us to deliver low- carbon nuclear power and support the UK transition to net zero.”
Rob Exley, ONR's head of generic design assessment, said: "The Rolls-Royce SMR GDA is one of firsts. We are the first regulators to assess this reactor design, determining whether it meets our robust safety, security, safeguards and environmental protection standards in Great Britain. It is also the first time we have followed the modernised GDA process, looking at an SMR design.
"ONR is satisfied that Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd are progressing and as regulators, we can now continue into Step 3 assessing in more detail the evidence that supports the claims made about the design in the Step 2 submissions.
"We will continue working together with the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales to ensure Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd understands and meets our regulatory expectations for its proposed reactor design.
"Based on our work during step one and two, the generic Rolls-Royce SMR design can proceed to step three of the GDA.”
A design acceptance confirmation (DAC) or statement of design acceptability (SoDA), from ONR and the environmental regulators respectively, will only be issued at the end of step three of the GDA if the design meets the safety, security, safeguards, environmental protection and waste management standards expected by the regulatory frameworks.
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