Nuclear security is a fundamental part of the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) and a key area of assessment for the regulators.
The Office for Nuclear Regulation undertakes this assessment, based on our security submissions, to make an informed judgement as to the suitability of the UK HPR1000 security design and confirm that it meets the high standards required in the UK.
At the end of Step 4 we submitted three documents to the regulators:
- Pre-Construction Safety Report (PCSR) (V2)
- Pre-Construction Environment Report (PCER) (V2); and
- Generic Security Report (GSR) – Security Case (V2).
The GSR – Security Case details the overarching report document which details the framework of documents that record the analysis and identified generic security mitigation measures which will be designed into the UK HPR1000. The mitigations identified will prevent the theft or sabotage of Nuclear Material (NM) or Other Radioactive Material (ORM), as well as the sabotage of a UK HPR1000 nuclear power station.
The GSR Security Case through all of its tiered supporting documents forms the nuclear security case for the UK HPR1000 and sets out the security by design ‘story’. Its assessment provide the regulators with confidence that the security design meets the high standards required in the UK by the ONR.
The GSR (together with the PCSR and PCER) have been progressed at each step of the GDA process. A final iteration was submitted to the regulators at the end Step 4. This development process takes a holistic approach to protective measures: physical protection, personnel security, cyber security and information assurance.
The generic security design is then developed further by the licensee (the company authorised to construct and/or operate a nuclear power station) in accordance with the requirements of the specific site for construction. Factors, such as the local geography, could influence some of the security measures required in addition to the generic design. Thus, the GSR is the baseline document for the licensee to produce its Nuclear Site Security Plan (NSSP) which is specific to the site.
The GSR includes details such as the categorisation of Nuclear Material (NM), Other Radioactive Material (ORM) and sources for theft and sabotage, the identification and categorisation of Vital Areas (VAs) and the methodology used for this analysis. It uses the UK Design Basis Threat (DBT) as its hypothesised baseline threat to inform the analysis and vulnerability assessments, with the outcome being the identification of appropriate protection for the UK HPR1000’s assets and Vital Areas.
As a result of the approach detailed above, the GSR includes the physical protection measures in place, access control measures, cyber security and defence in depth applied at all times to satisfy the security and safety requirements.
Elements such as the UK DBT must remain classified and be treated as such. This means that some sections of the reports which contain classified information have been redacted before they were published on our website.
