NUWARD SMR safety approach and licensing objectives for international deployment

Drawing on the deep experience and understanding of the principles of nuclear safety, as well as many years of nuclear power plant design and operation, the EDF led NUWARD SMR Project is developing a design for a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) of 340 MWe composed of two 170 MWe independent units, that will supplement the offering of high-output nuclear reactors, especially in response to specific needs such as replacement of fossil-fuelled power plants. NUWARD SMR is a mix of proven and innovative design features that will make it more commercially competitive, while integrating safety features that comply with the highest international standards. Following the principles of redundancy and diversity and rigorous application of Defence in Depth (DID), with an international view on nuclear safety licensing, the Project also incorporates new safety approaches into its design development.The NUWARD SMR Project has been in development for a number of years, it entered conceptual design formally in mid-2019 and entered Basic Design in 2023. The objective of the concept design phase was to confirm the project technological choices and to define the first design configuration of the NUWARD SMR product, to document it, in order to launch pre-licensing with the French Safety Authority (ASN) and to define its estimated cost and its subsequent development and construction schedules. As a delivery milestone the Safety Options file (called the Dossier d’Options de Sûreté (DOS)) has been submitted to ASN in July 2023 for their opinion.An integral part of the NUWARD SMR Project, is not only to deliver a design suitable for France and to satisfy French regulation, but to develop a product suitable and indeed desirable, for the international market, with a first focus in Europe. In order to achieve its objectives and realise its market potential, the NUWARD SMR Project needs to define and realise its safety approach within an international environment and that is the key subject of this paper. The following paper:• Summarises the ...