Legal and Policy Advancements for Advanced Reactors
Recently, the Hill has been taking a flurry of legislative actions that impact the advanced reactor community across all spectra. We provide a summary of some of the major bills going through Congress below, including a couple which have recently become law or may become so soon.
Nuclear Energy Innovation Capabilities Act (NEICA) (S. 97).…
This month, the NRC published an early draft regulatory guide on the content of license applications for non-LWRs. The document is designed to help license applicants apply the NRC’s movement towards a risk-informed/performance-based regulatory approach towards the drafting of an actual license application.
The document is in part the result of the Southern Company-led Licensing…
In today’s international nuclear marketplace, foreign investment is a significant source of capital for U.S. next-generation nuclear ventures. However, about-to-be signed legislation has the potential to broadly expand the ability of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (“CFIUS”) to review foreign investment into the United States directed towards the nuclear industry, as…
The NRC staff recently publicly released a major new paper embracing regulatory reform to advance risk-informed regulation for advanced reactors. Included in this paper is a concept of a “10 CFR Part 53”—a potentially entirely new process for licensing advanced reactors.
SECY-18-0060, “Achieving Modern Risk-Informed Regulation,” proposes “several significant and specific revisions” to the…
On Sunday, the popular TV show Madam Secretary gave a starring role to the climate and security benefits of nuclear power. The episode, titled “Thin Ice,” which is still available on the CBS website, proffered a full-throated defense of the climate benefits of nuclear power, turned a grassroots activist organization into a supporter of…
On April 4, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued Regulatory Guide 1.232, Guidance for Developing Principal Design Criteria for Non-Light Water Reactors. The regulatory guide’s generic set of Advanced Reactor Design Criteria cover most non-light-water technologies. The guide also includes technology-specific criteria for sodium-cooled fast reactors and high temperature gas-cooled reactors.
The regulatory…
The start of the month has proven to be an exciting one for nuclear innovation in D.C. A number of legal and regulatory activities have taken place which have implications for the next-generation nuclear industry, just a few of which are noted below. (And for those at the ARPA-E conference, see our blog author Amy…
The White House released its long-awaited infrastructure plan outline last week. Leaving aside the funding proposals, the plan sets forth a number of potential revisions to the environmental permitting process for new infrastructure projects that may deserve a closer look (these are found in Part III of the infrastructure plan outline). Hogan Lovells has issued…
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Energy held a hearing February 6, 2018 to discuss the challenges facing America’s nuclear infrastructure, including advanced reactor development. The hearing was called “DOE Modernization: Advancing the Economic and National Security Benefits of America’s Nuclear Infrastructure.” A video of the hearing can be watched here.…
The Department of Energy (DOE) and Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) have issued a trio of reports touching on important issues for small modular and advanced reactors:
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