Russian
state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom failed to submit a bid to buy
the UK nuclear joint venture Horizon Nuclear Power after detailed study
of licensing requirements for new reactors in the UK, a spokesman said
October 3.
Rosatom
had previously expressed interest in licensing its Generation III+
VVER, pressurised water reactor, the 1200-MWe “NPP 2006” design as part
of its interest in Horizon.
The reactor design, also known as the MIR 1200 in Europe, is an evolutionary design based on the VVER 1000. The
NPP 2006
includes passive safety systems, aircraft protection, and, like the
Areva EPR, a core catcher to contain the reactor core in the event of a
severe accident meltdown, Rosatom says.
Versions
of the NPP 2006 have or are being built in Russia, China and India and
the reactor has or is being bid into Turkey, Finland and the Czech
Republic.
“After
detailed study of the process of licensing of new reactors in the UK we
decided not to participate,” in the bidding to buy Horizon Nuclear
Power, the Rosatom spokesman said.
A
spokesman for the UK’s Office for Nuclear Regulation said the ONR had
offered informal guidance on the UK regulatory and licensing processes
to companies, although he could not immediately confirm to which
companies.
The
spokesman said ONR has had no “formal” discussions about licensing new
reactors with any reactor designers who were not already in the agency’s
generic design assessment (GDA) process.
The
GDA process since 2007 has reviewed the Areva EPR, the Westinghouse
AP1000, the GE-Hitachi ESBWR, and Candu Energy’s (formerly AECL) ACR
1000 reactor designs.
ACR-1000
was withdrawn from GDA by AECL in April 2008 and GE-Hitachi suspended
its involvement in September of the same year. Westinghouse ‘paused’ its
involvement last year. During 2012, the ONR have only undertaken
regulatory assessment work on the UK EPR, the spokesman said.
Horizon,
a joint venture between German utilities RWE and E.On, has no
generating assets, but it owns two of the potential sites for new
nuclear plants, one in Wylfa, Anglesey, and the other in Oldbury,
Gloucestershire.
Bidding
to buy Horizon reportedly closed September 28, although there has been
no official confirmation on any of the process. A decision is expected
in several weeks on the remaining bidders, according to unconfirmed
press reports.
Areva confirms no bid
French state-owned Areva, which had said it was
teaming up with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp. to bid for Horizon also confirmed October 3 that it failed to submit a bid.
A
spokeswoman for Areva said October 3 that Areva and China Guangdong
“have suspended their interest in the planned sale of Horizon Nuclear
Power and did not submit a bid.” She would not comment on the reasons
why the two companies failed to submit a bid, but she said Areva
“remains committed to participate in the development of new nuclear
capacity in the UK.”
The
Rosatom spokesman also said October 3 that Rosatom remains interested
in the UK market. “We are looking for new interesting opportunities on
the UK market. We are interested in creating alliances with leading
players of the world nuclear market,” the spokesman said.
Remaining bidders?
Westinghouse
would not comment October 3 on reports that it did submit a bid to buy
Horizon, although the same unconfirmed reports said Westinghouse’s bid
had no Chinese backing as press reports anticipated.
Hitachi, the only other company reported to have submitted a bid to buy Horizon, could not be reached for comment immediately.—David Stellfox
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