Collaboration on assessments for small nuclear reactors
The Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection is going to collaborate on an international scale to assess the preliminary design of NUWARD, a small nuclear reactor. NUWARD is a small modular reactor (SMR) owned by the French company EDF. The development of SMRs is in full swing, but there are none yet in Europe. They are smaller than the normal nuclear reactor, so they can be erected more easily in a variety of places. In industrial parks, for instance.
Collaboration with 5 other regulators
To assess the safety of the preliminary design of NUWARD, we are joining forces with other European regulators. Sweden (SSM), Poland (PAA), France (ASN), Czechia (SÙJB) and Finland (STUK) are also taking part in the assessment of the NUWARD design. On 14 November, our Board Chair Annemiek van Bolhuis signed a Terms of Reference document with collaboration agreements at a meeting of the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (WENRA). Deputy Board Chair Marco Brugmans signed a supplementary agreement on 1 December.
The Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection will take part in the second phase of the NUWARD collaboration. The first phase of the assessment was carried out by SÙJB, STUK and ASN. The collaboration was also discussed on Friday 10 November at a meeting between ANVS board members Annemiek van Bolhuis and Marco Brugmans and colleagues from the French regulator ASN. It was the first meeting since the start of a partnership between the Authority and ASN in September.
Michael Knochenhauer (acting director-general of SSM, Sweden), Andrzej Głowacki (chair of PAA, Poland), Annemiek van Bolhuis (board chair of ANVS, Netherlands), Olivier Gupta (director-general of ASN, France), Petteri Tiipana (director of STUK, Finland) and Dana Drábová (board chair of SÚJB, Czechia) are signatories to the NUWARD collaboration agreements.
More knowledge and experience
The purpose of the collaboration is to assess some of the safety aspects of the preliminary design of NUWARD. So it does not involve a full assessment of the design. The Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection is taking part in the collaboration for the following reasons:
- To gain knowledge of and experience in assessing a modern SMR and applying Dutch safety requirements to it.
- To experience and strengthen collaboration with other regulators. We want to learn how other regulators deal with legislation. That will enable us to better understand their assessments and make use of this at a later stage. We might also be able to adopt the assessment, or parts of it.
- To ensure that the safety requirements that are important for us in the design are included (if that was not already the case).
Working alongside British colleagues
The collaboration for the preliminary design of NUWARD is in keeping with the Authority’s aim to be prepared for the future. Experts from the Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection are involved not only in the NUWARD collaboration but also in the assessment of the SMR design of Rolls-Royce. The Office of Nuclear Regulation – the British regulatory body – is performing the assessment. So we are entering into wide international collaboration to strengthen our knowledge and expertise, preparing ourselves for licence applications that might be made in the Netherlands for the construction of SMRs.
Small modular reactors
Increasing attention has been paid in recent years to innovative developments in the nuclear sector. This includes SMRs. These smaller nuclear reactors are composed of separate components that are made in a factory. Those components can subsequently be put together on the site of the future SMR. As SMRs will consume less reactor power than big nuclear power plants, they can make use of other techniques and design principles: more passive cooling, for instance, for which no pumps or electricity are needed.