Chinese nuclear reactor design progresses to key assessment phase in UK

Britain's Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) announced Thursday that it has completed Step Three of the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) of the HPR1000, a Chinese nuclear power reactor design, and taken the decision to progress to a key phase of Step Four.

As a pressurized water reactor, the HPR1000 is developed by China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) and is one of the most widely-received Generation-III nuclear power models on the market.

The outcome from the Step Three assessment is that "sufficient progress" has been made to move into the next assessment stage, said ONR in a statement.

"Our assessment to date has not identified any fundamental safety or security shortfalls that would prevent us issuing a Design Acceptance Confirmation for the UK HPR1000 design," said ONR's Head of UK HPR1000 Regulation Ana Gomez-Cobo in the statement.

"Although progress so far is encouraging, a lot of work by the Requesting Party is still required. We will continue to rigorously assess safety and security submissions throughout Step Four of GDA," Gomez-Cobo added.

Step Four, the final phase of assessment, is expected to last around two years, and after passing the whole process of GDA, HPR1000 will be used in the construction of Bradwell B nuclear power station project in Britain, according to the CGN.