GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor design has completed an initial stage of the UK government’s generic design assessment, a regulatory milestone although it does not authorize construction or signal a deployment decision.
The UK Office for Nuclear Regulation, in partnership with the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, confirmed that the design completed step 2 of the assessment process, known as a fundamental assessment. Regulators said the review did not identify any fundamental safety, security or environmental protection issues that would prevent the design from advancing to later stages of evaluation.
The assessment is a voluntary, non-site-specific review used to examine reactor designs regardless of the proposed project’s location or owner. Completing Step 2 only indicates that a developer’s high-level submissions are mature enough to warrant further involvement.
300 MW
Small modular reactors are nuclear fission reactors with a rated electrical output of 300 MWe or less, and are shipped as prefabricated modules, allowing for streamlined construction and improved scalability.
Source: International Energy Agency, World Energy
In public summaries, regulators said Step 2 focuses on design concepts, safety assertions and organizational readiness rather than detailed technical analysis. Any further review of Step 3 would involve wider scrutiny of safety cases, environmental impacts and safety arrangements.
Andy Champ, UK country lead for GE Vernova Hitachi, said completion of the first two steps under the revised design assessment framework was achieved more quickly than for other reactor designs submitted. UK regulators and government officials have stressed that there are currently no identified sites or active deployment proposals for the BWRX-300 in England or Wales.
Any future project would still require site-specific nuclear licences, environmental permits and planning approvals before construction could begin.
The BWRX-300 is a 300 MW natural circulation boiling water reactor design that is under regulatory review in other jurisdictions, including Canada, where a single unit is being built at Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington site near Toronto.
UK officials have framed the assessment process as part of wider efforts to assess advanced nuclear technologies, while stressing that significant regulatory and planning hurdles remain before any construction activity can occur.
Photo by Nischaporn/Adobe
India seeks battery recycling for rare earth mineral supply
India is accelerating efforts to build a domestic battery recycling industry as part of its broader push for clean energy and electric vehicles, aiming to reduce reliance on imported critical minerals.
An analysis by the Rocky Mountain Institute estimates that a recycling market could generate about 100,000 jobs and become a multibillion-dollar industry by recovering lithium, cobalt and nickel from spent batteries used in electric vehicles, consumer electronics and grid storage.
However, industry executives and analysts cited in the report warn that India’s recycling sector remains constrained by fragmented collection systems, a dominant informal waste market and underutilized formal facilities.
Although India’s battery waste management rules set collection and recycling targets, enforcement gaps and infrastructure gaps continue to limit scale-up, leaving much of the sector’s economic and environmental potential untapped.
