U.K. Gives Preliminary Approval to 4 Reactor Designs

The U.K. government Thursday gave the preliminary go- ahead to the design of four nuclear reactors, even though it has yet to decide whether to formally support nuclear power.

Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., Areva (CEI.FR), GE Energy, a unit of General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse Electric Co., a unit of Japan's Toshiba Corp (6502.TO) have all submitted individual designs for the four reactors.

"This means the designs have gone through the first phase of the process - the preliminary safety case for each reactor design has been assessed," a spokeswoman for the government told Dow Jones Newswires.

Before the generic designs of the nuclear power plants are completely approved or pre-licensed, the government's new Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, established just last week by new Prime Minister Gordon Brown, must consider the designs more carefully.

"It is likely that the number of designs to be considered during phase two ( of the generic approval process) will be reduced from four to three due to resource constraints of the regulators," the government said in a statement. It said that it would reduce the number "in due course".

This comes on the heels of yesterday's news that new U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown sees room for nuclear energy in his country going forward:

Britain's future energy supplies would be 'safeguarded' by the construction of new nuclear power stations, said Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Speaking at his first Prime Minister's Questions, Brown said last year's events in Europe, where Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine, 'should make it clear to everyone that we cannot rely on an energy policy that makes us wholly dependent on one or two countries or one or two regions around the world'.

'That is why the security of our energy supply is best safeguarded by building a new generation of nuclear power stations,' he said.

For more from the U.K., see what our friends at NAM wrote here and here.

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