The Justification Decision (Generation of Electricity by the UK ABWR Nuclear Reactor) Regulations 2015

• Citation: S.I. 2015/209
• Sections: 4

Section 1 Citation and commencement

These Regulations may be cited as the Justification Decision (Generation of Electricity by the UK ABWR Nuclear Reactor) Regulations 2015 and come into force on the day after the day on which they are made.

Section 2 Interpretation

In these Regulations—

“the 1996 Directive ” means Council Directive 96/29/Euratom laying down basic safety standards for the protection of the health of workers and the general public against the dangers arising from ionizing radiation ;

“class or type of practice” bears the same meaning as it bears under Article 6(1) of the 1996 Directive;

“justified” in relation to a class or type of practice means justified by its economic, social or other benefits in relation to the health detriment it may cause;

“spent fuel” means nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in and permanently removed from a reactor core;

“the UK ABWR practice ” means the class or type of practice which is the generation of electricity from nuclear energy using oxide fuel of low enrichment in fissile content in a light water-cooled, light water moderated thermal reactor known as UK ABWR designed by Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd , and where the specification of that reactor matches that set out in Annex 1 to the document “Consultation on the Nuclear Industry Association’s Application to Justify the UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (UK ABWR) - Volume 2: Application Submitted by the Nuclear Industry Association” published in February 2014 by the Department of Energy and Climate Change, URN 14D/004.

Section 3 Justification decision

For the purposes of Article 6(1) of the 1996 Directive, subject to regulation 4, the following are justified—

(a) the UK ABWR practice ; and

(b) any class or type of practice which is—

(i) a development of the UK ABWR practice; and

(ii) so similar to the UK ABWR practice that the balance of benefits and detriments from that class or type of practice does not materially differ from the balance of benefits and detriments from the UK ABWR practice .

Section 4 Mixed oxide fuel and reprocessing

The justification decision in regulation 3 does not extend to—

(a) the use of mixed oxide fuel in a class or type of practice justified under that regulation; or

(b) the reprocessing of spent fuel which arises from such a class or type of practice.