The Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has progressed to the final assessment stage of Hitachi-GE's UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) design.

The UK ABWR is planned for deployment by Horizon Nuclear Power at two sites: Wylfa Newydd on the Isle of Anglesey, and Oldbury-on-Severn in South Gloucestershire.

Step 3 of the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) looks at the safety and security arguments presented by Hitachi-GE to underpin the safety and security claims.

The ONR has concluded Hitachi-GE has made 'sufficient progress' to move into the final stage.

The company expects to complete this phase in December 2017.

The next stage of the GDA process will be the start of the Environment Agency's and Natural Resources Wales (NRW) consultation on the environmental part of the assessment, which is to begin in October 2016.

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Once complete ONR, the Environment Agency and NRW are to use the work to help inform any subsequent assessments for site specific proposals that use this reactor design.

However, before any site specific development could continue, the operator would have to secure all relevant permissions for the site including a Nuclear Site Licence and environmental permits.

Jane Bowie, ONR's Head of GDA said: "We are now ready to start the fourth and final step of the assessment process. Throughout step 3, interactions with Hitachi-GE have been positive; they are responsive and open to constructive challenge and engagement.

"There is still a lot of work to be undertaken by Hitachi-GE, and they will have to maintain high quality, on-time delivery to achieve their target DAC date of December 2017."

Engineering Director at Horizon Nuclear Power, Mark Lunn, said: "This is an important step forward for our Wylfa Newydd Project and keeps us firmly on track to start generating in the first half of the 2020s.

"The hard work will continue but we have made strong progress towards delivery of the secure, sustainable and affordable power that will come from our development."

A comments process has been set up by Hitachi-GE at the ONR's request allowing people to see and comment on the submissions made to the regulators.

(LM/CD)