4 January 2012
The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) today published its National Report to the EU outlining its review of the stress test programme undertaken by the industry following the events at Fukushima last year.
EDF Energy conducted stress tests of each of its eight UK nuclear power stations and this work is reflected in today’s report.
The ONR report concluded that: "The UK Licensees have completed adequate stress tests reviews in line with the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group specification."
It also said: “Neither the reviews undertaken by the Licensees for the stress tests, nor the earlier national reviews has indicated any fundamental weaknesses in the definition of design basis events or the safety systems related to the stress tests to withstand them for UK NPPs."
Dr Andy Spurr, EDF Energy’s Managing Director of Nuclear Generation said:
“The ONR report concludes that the UK plants are robust to design basis events and safe to continue operations. We are an industry that learns from experience in order to improve safety performance and safety margins. As such, through our review we have identified ways to enhance further our current robust position and ONR has reflected this in its report. We are already implementing these improvements in line with the ONR’s expectations."
EDF Energy is committed to openness and transparency and has published the stress test reports for its eight nuclear power plants in the UK which are covered in today’s report. These can be viewed at: http://www.edfenergy.com/stresstest
In addition, EDF Energy has completed a stress test report for the EPR design proposed for nuclear new build in the UK, which confirms EDF Energy’s view of the robustness of this design in extreme scenarios. This is expected to be included in a future ONR report on non-generating nuclear sites in the UK.
For more information contact:
Jonathan Levy - 0207 752 2265
Notes to Editors
EDF Energy
EDF Energy is one of the UK’s largest energy companies and the largest producer of low-carbon electricity, producing around one-sixth of the nation's electricity from its nuclear power stations, wind farms, coal and gas power stations and combined heat and power plants. The company supplies gas and electricity to more than 5.5 million business and residential customer accounts and is the biggest supplier of electricity by volume in Great Britain.
EDF Energy’s safe and secure operation of its eight existing nuclear power stations at sites across the country makes it the UK’s largest generator of low carbon electricity. EDF Energy is also leading the UK's nuclear renaissance and has published plans to build four new nuclear plants, subject to the right investment framework. These new plants could generate enough low carbon electricity for about 40% of Britain’s homes. They would make an important contribution to the UK’s future needs for clean, secure and affordable energy. The project is already creating business and job opportunities for British companies and workers.
In its nuclear activities EDF Energy has partnered with Centrica, which has a 20% stake in the company’s eight existing plants and in the project carrying out pre-development work for new build. Centrica also has the option to take up to 20% stakes in each of the four planned plants.
Through Our Sustainability Commitments, EDF Energy has launched one of the biggest environmental and social programmes of any British energy company and the company has since been awarded the highest ranking of Platinum Plus in Business in the Community’s 2011 Corporate Responsibility Index, the UK’s leading voluntary benchmark of corporate responsibility.
EDF is the official energy utilities partner and sustainability partner of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The company is also helping its customers and others use energy more sustainably through products and initiatives such as Team Green Britain, smart meters and electric vehicle research.
EDF Energy is part of EDF Group, one of Europe’s largest power companies. The company employs around 15,000 people at locations across the UK.
For more news from EDF Energy please see www.edfenergy.com/media-centre/ . To find out more about the UK's energy challenges look at www.edfenergy.com/energyfuture/