Westinghouse's AP1000 reactors approved for Moorside NPP (UK)

The United Kingdom Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has endorsed the design of Westinghouse Electric's AP 1000 reactors and the UK Environment Agency (EA) has granted a Statement of Design Acceptability (SoDA). This concretely means that Westinghouse's reactors have met the required expectations regarding safety, security and environmental protection standards.



NuGen, a consortium of Toshiba (60%) and Engie (40%), intends to develop the nuclear Moorside project in West Cumbria (England) with a capacity of up to 3.4 GW, consisting of three Westinghouse AP1000s of 1,200 MW capacity each. NuGen signed a land contract with the NDA for Moorside in 2014. The final investment decision will be made by end-2018 for a planned commissioning in 2025-2027.



Westinghouse is now bankrupt and as a result, Toshiba and Engie are looking for partners to share the investment risks. Toshiba even considers divesting from the project. In late January 2017, the group decided to review its nuclear construction business outside Japan, to focus on maintenance, repairs and decommissioning of reactors.

In February 2017, Toshiba has announced that it was considering further "participating in the Moorside project "without taking on any risk from carrying out actual construction work". Toshiba's new strategic orientation questions the development of the project.



At the moment, 8 AP1000s are currently under construction worldwide: four in the United States (in VC Summer and Vogtle), and four in China (in Sanmen and Haiyang). After the French EPR, this is the second third-generation reactor to see its design validated in the UK. Two others reactor types are also committed in the process: the Hitachi-GE consortium's ABWR reactor and the Chinese Hualong One's HPR1000, which filed its application for the Bradwell B project (owned by CGN and EDF).