Newcleo reactor design accepted for UK assessment

Generic Design Assessment (GDA) is a process carried out by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the Environment Agency (EA) and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) 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. Successful completion of the three-step GDA culminates in the issue of a Design Acceptance Confirmation from the ONR and a Statement of Design Acceptability from the EA. In May 2021, the UK's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy opened the GDA process to advanced nuclear technologies, including small modular reactors (SMRs).

Newcleo applied to the UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) in December last year for approval to enter the GDA for its commercial-scale LFR-AS-200 reactor. At the time, it said it aimed to complete a two-step GDA with the ONR and EA, including a fundamental assessment of its technology by the regulators.

Welcoming DESNZ's decision to accept the design for GDA - which it says is the first ever such acceptance for an advanced modular reactor (AMR) - Newcleo said: "This application acceptance reflects the progress that Newcleo Group has made in their UK project as well as the advancement of their research, development, and design activities. This step follows the application to the UK authorities for a Regulatory Justification Decision on Newcleo's LFR in April 2024 – the first such application for a new reactor for almost a decade and the first ever for an AMR."

Newcleo said its LFR reactor design is "being developed for commercial deployment and the UK project team is currently investigating a number of potential sites for deployment of the technology in the UK".

"We are pleased to be entering the Generic Design Assessment process, a key milestone in Newcleo's UK project," the company's founder and CEO Stefano Buono said. "Furthermore, today's announcements from the UK government send a clear message that the future for nuclear is bright. We are particularly encouraged by the support for private sector-led projects and the potential for routes for future investment – as the first advanced technology to be accepted into the GDA and regulatory justification processes we are looking forward to being part of these discussions and helping to add to the range of nuclear technologies for the UK."

Andrew Murdoch, Newcleo's Managing Director UK, added: "We are looking forward to working with the ONR, EA, and NRW and to starting the GDA process as soon as possible. We are delighted to celebrate this further step in Newcleo's journey, and the fact that we are the first AMR project to have achieved this milestone in the UK and have done so without any public funding, only underlines the strength of our proposed design and operating model and our determination to delivering advanced new nuclear technologies to Great Britain."

According to Newcleo's delivery roadmap, the first non-nuclear pre-cursor prototype of its lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) is expected to be ready by 2026 in Italy, the first reactor operational in France by the end of 2031, while the final investment decision for the first commercial power plant is expected around 2029.

GDAs have previously been completed for the EDF/Areva UK EPR, the Westinghouse AP1000, the Hitachi-GE UK ABWR and the CGN/EDF/GNI UK HPR1000 designs. GDAs are currently ongoing for Rolls-Royce SMR Limited's small modular reactor design, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy's BWRX-300 and Holtec International's SMR-300. Westinghouse's AP300 was accepted for a GDA review in August 2024.