Assessing new nuclear power station designs: Generic design assessment of General Nuclear System Limited UK Hualong pressurised water reactor (UK HPR1000)

Overview

The government is responsible for the UK's energy policy and its current position is set out in the December 2020 white paper, "Powering our Net Zero Future".  In the white paper, the government highlights the need to address climate change urgently and it sets out the strategy for wider energy systems to achieve the UK's target of net zero emissions by 2050. 

New nuclear power stations are an important part of the government’s strategy to help ensure that we have secure supplies of low carbon electricity in the future.

At the Environment Agency , we have published our own plan, ‘EA2025 creating a better place’, to guide our activities. This plan will act as our compass, enabling us and others to chart a course towards a healthier, greener and more prosperous country in 2025.

Our EA2025 plan sets out 3 main goals:

• a nation resilient to climate change
• healthy air, land and water
• green growth and a sustainable future

Our regulation of nuclear sites aligns with these goals because it helps ensure that these facilities are designed and operated in ways which minimise waste and protect the environment.  

As both regulators of the nuclear industry, we and the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) work togther to ensure that any new nuclear power stations built in the UK meet high standards of safety, security, environmental protection and waste management.

We scrutinise new nuclear power station designs thoroughly, making sure people and the environment are properly protected.

General Nuclear System Ltd (GNSL), is a UK company that is owned jointly by China General Nuclear (CGN) and Electrictie de France (EDF). Both companies are major providers of nuclear technologies, in China and France respectively. CGN has developed and is constructing new nuclear power stations in China using Hualong reactors. The UK HPR1000 power station is based on the Hualong design and has been submitted to the UK nuclear regulators for Generic Design Assessment (GDA). GNSL’s role is to act on behalf of the Requesting Parties (RP), the organisations submitting their reactor designs for this generic design assessment, working directly with the regulators.

An example 3D model of the UK HPR1000 - Image copyright of China General Nuclear

The GDA allows us to begin scrutinising new nuclear power station designs well in advance of construction starting. This means that we can identify any potential design issues at an early stage and ask the reactor design company to address them. This will help to avoid potential costly and time consuming changes when the reactor is being built.

We are asking for your views on our assessment of the UK Hualong pressurised water reactor UK HPR1000 nuclear power station design.

Read our documents – Please see full list of documents below. These can be found in the 'related documents' section at the bottom of the page.

Our preliminary conclusions and supporting reasoning are available in our full consultation document and we welcome your views.

We are also publishing 8 preliminary assessment reports, an independent dose assessment and a short plain English public summary to help inform the consultation, see below for full list of documents.

• Consultation summary document - please click here to view HTML link.
• UK HPR1000 consultation document
• AR01 - Preliminary detailed assessment of management systems
• AR02 - Preliminary detailed assessment of strategic considerations for radioactive waste management
• AR03 - Preliminary detailed assessment of best available techniques (BAT)
• AR04 - Preliminary detailed assessment of gaseous and liquid discharges of radioactive waste
• AR05 - Preliminary detailed assessment of solid radioactive waste, spent fuel and disposability
• AR06 - Preliminary detailed assessment of sampling and monitoring
• AR07 - Preliminary detailed assessment of the generic site description and the assessment of doses to the public and to wildlife
• AR08 - Preliminary detailed assessment of other environmental regulations
• Independent dose assessment to support the Environment Agency's assessment of General Nuclear System Limited's UK HPR1000
• Generic design assessment leaflet 2021 FINAL
• GDA UK HPR1000 consultation briefing note FINAL

Why we are consulting

We want to hear your views on our preliminary conclusions following our detailed assessment of environmental aspects of the UK HPR1000 new nuclear power station design.

A simplified diagram of the internal workings of the UK HPR1000 - Image copyright of China General Nuclear

Our consultation does not relate to a specific site. However, the Bradwell Power Generation Company Limited is developing proposals for 2 UK HPR1000s to be constructed at the Bradwell site in Essex, adjacent to the existing Magnox power station. The GDA does not mean that Bradwell Power Generation Company Limited can proceed to construction at the site as the company must still secure all relevant permissions for the site before this could begin.

We would emphasise that this consultation is not about the need for nuclear power, UK energy policy, policy relating to the siting of nuclear power stations, or the safety and security of the design.

We can all help to protect and improve the environment by being actively involved. We have deliberately made the GDA process open, transparent and consultative and we would like people to understand our role, what we are doing and why it's important.

This is a public consultation and we welcome everyone’s views. We want to hear from the public, the energy industry, academics interested in nuclear power, energy or the environment, non-governmental organisations and any other organisation or public body.

We would like to find out your views on our preliminary conclusions following our detailed assessment of the environmental aspects of the UK HPR1000 nuclear power station design.