Holtec SMR Progresses to Next Step of Pre-licensing Process in Great Britain

The Holtec International’s SMR-300 small modular reactor design has completed the first step of the Generic Design Assessment process and progressed to the next phase of its assessment.

Upon completion of the first phase of the assessment in 2024, Holtec has started the second phase and in parallel launched a comments process enabling anyone to submit comments and questions about the reactor design. Relevant issues raised during the comments process and Holtec’s responses to these issues will be used by the regulators during design assessment.

Since the SMR-300 is one of six SMR designs selected by Great British Nuclear for the UK’s SMR implementation competition then, at the company’s request, the design will not undergo all GDA phases but only two. A Design Acceptance Confirmation and a Statement of Design Acceptability will not be issued for the design but a GDA statement will be issued upon completion of the second phase. In GDA statement shall be stated that the construction, operation and decommissioning comply with UK`s nuclear safety and security standards.

Should Holtec wish to continue its plans to build an SMR in England or Wales, a further period of detailed design assessment will be carried out by the regulators, either as part of a future Step 3 or as part of a site-specific design development.

Additional information: Generic Design Assessment (GDA) is carried out by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales (NRW). The GDA objective is to assess the safety, security and environmental protection aspects of a nuclear power plant design that is intended to be deployed in Great Britain. The GDA process is a voluntary, non-mandatory process.