HSE commissions safety review of new nuclear reactors
3 Sep 2009
London - The Health & Safety Executive has awarded engineering consultancies Frazer-Nash and Praxis a contract to provide advice to HSE in its independent review of certain safety aspects of designs for the UK’s new generation of nuclear reactors.
The HSE, working with the Environment Agency, is currently assessing two different reactor types – the UK-EPR designed by Areva and EDF, and the AP1000 designed by Westinghouse – for their suitability to meet UK regulatory standards, as part of its Generic Design Assessment (GDA) process.
The Executive has commissioned prime contractor Frazer-Nash and technical lead Praxis to provide technical support to produce independent advice on certain areas within the HSE’s assessment. The review will focus on control and instrumentation aspects of the reactor designs, including the reactor protection systems.
The findings of the work will support the HSE’s overall assessment of the designs, and help them determine the extent to which they can meet the UK’s stringent Safety Assessment Principles. This will ultimately feed into the regulator’s decision making process helping HSE to produce its report on the extent to which the reactor designs meet the UK licensing requirements.
Frazer-Nash is the prime contractor within a consortium of companies which were chosen by the HSE to provide technical support to the GDA process, and news of this contract follows the consortium successfully securing a number of framework agreements with the regulator.
The work will be co-ordinated by Frazer-Nash’s Warrington team, the culmination of which will be a report by Frazer-Nash and Praxis which will be submitted to the HSE.
