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Have your say: guidelines for the preliminary consultation for the construction of nuclear reactors

News item | 12-05-2025 | 12:00

The Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ANVS) is keen to hear your thoughts concerning our clarification of the preliminary consultation for the construction of nuclear reactors. The preliminary consultation is intended as a preparation for the licence application, in this case for the construction of a nuclear reactor. Responses can be submitted up to and including 6 June 2025 via internetconsultatie.nl.

Extensive preparation required

If an initiating party submits a licence application to us then, according to the law, we have six months to assess it. We may extend this period once by a reasonable term. We are only able to assess large licence applications within this timeframe if the application has been prepared in great detail.

The aim of the preliminary consultation is therefore to gain a clear understanding of what is required when applying for a licence for larger projects. Licence applications for nuclear reactor construction are extensive and time consuming. ‘Nuclear reactors’ refer to large nuclear power plants as well as smaller nuclear reactors, such as small modular reactors (SMRs).

New in these guidelines

We already have a procedure in place for preliminary consultations. These guidelines will not affect most of this procedure. The main differences compared to the procedure to date include the following:

  • The initiating party has to submit a request for a preliminary consultation. This was not previously stipulated.
  • The ANVS has defined criteria that initiating parties must meet in order to start a preliminary consultation.
  • We publish the notification of intent (agreements between ANVS and the initiating party) on our website.
  • The Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR) is submitted with the final licence application. A publishable version is published with the licence application

Aspects that we would like feedback on

Questions that we are keen to get feedback on include:

  • Are there any areas where the ANVS could enhance the clarity of the guidelines? If so, please specify.
  • Are there any subjects that we have not addressed in detail in the guidelines for the preliminary consultation? If so, please specify.
  • Are there any areas where the ANVS could enhance the clarity of the guidelines in terms of what may be expected from an initiating party in preliminary consultations? For instance, those concerning the exchange of information, nuclear security and communications. If so, please specify.
  • What do you think of the options we have included in the preliminary consultation?

Be part of the online consultation process (closed in Dutch).

Changes following feedback

We will start processing the feedback after 6 June 2025. We will amend the guidelines where necessary and publish them on our website. We will list the feedback we received and how we addressed it.