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Tried and tested: Four ABWR power plants have been commercially operated in Japan
The Office for Nuclear Regulation has begun assessing the reactor design planned for construction at Wylfa, Anglesey, and Oldbury, Gloucestershire.
The announcement from the nuclear safety regulator and the Environment Agency is a milestone in the effort to build the advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) design in the UK. The first UK ABWR unit at Wylfa could be generating electricity by 2025.
The ABWR has an output of 1,330MW. It is a light water reactor design that directly heats water to raise steam and drive turbines. The ABWR is developed by Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy and will be built in the UK by Horizon Nuclear Power.
The generic design assessment (GDA) process scrutinises a new nuclear reactor’s safety, security, environmental and waste implications for use in the UK, before site-specific issues are brought forward.
The ABWR is the third design to undergo the assessment since the process was set up in 2006 to speed up the approval of new nuclear reactors.
Areva’s EPR design, which will be built at Hinkley Point C, has already gone through the process. Westinghouse has also taken its AP1000 design through most of the GDA, but is not providing submissions on issues raised by the process until it has secured a UK customer for the reactor.
Ian Parker, Environment Agency nuclear regulation group manager, said: “I am pleased that we are now able to begin assessing the UK ABWR. Hitachi-GE will continue to provide further and updated information during GDA. Subject to the company providing acceptable and timely submissions to us, we should be able to complete the GDA in around four years.”
Ken Sato, general manager for licensing at Hitachi Europe, said on behalf of Hitachi-GE: “The ABWR is a proven technology, and four units have been commercially operated in Japan.
“GDA is a thorough, robust and rigorous assessment of the technology, and an assessment of this type is not time-limited. However, based on past experience, we expect the process to take around four years, allowing for completion by the end of 2017.”
The first of the four operational ABWRs in Japan was commissioned in 1996. Two more are being built there. The reactor is also licensed for use in the US. And two are under construction in Taiwan.
The reactors at Wylfa and Oldbury will be built by Horizon Nuclear Power, the UK company set up for this task in 2009 by German utilities RWE and E.On. RWE and E.On pulled out of the project following the backlash against nuclear power in Germany after the Fukushima disaster. Horizon was subsequently taken over by Hitachi and is a wholly owned subsidiary of that company.