Generic designs for two nuclear reactors proposed for construction in the UK have been granted interim acceptance by the independent nuclear safety, security and environment regulators.

The Office for Nuclear Regulation and the Environment Agency confirmed they are satisfied with how the designers of both EDF and Areva’s UK EPR and Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactors plan to resolve a number of remaining issues.

Neither reactor can be built in the UK until these issues are resolved.

For both designs, the Office for Nuclear Regulation has issued interim Design Acceptance Confirmations (iDAC) and the Environment Agency has issued interim Statements of Design Acceptability (iSoDA).

Having completed the planned assessment of the safety cases for the generic designs, the regulators have today published reports for each design summarising the basis of their decision, together with their technical assessment reports. They also published documents explaining how the designers plan to resolve issues identified in a report written by the UK’s chief inspector of nuclear installations, Mike Weightman, on the Fukushima accident.

For more information, and to access the published documents, please visit the joint regulators’ webpages