Legal and Policy Advancements for Advanced Reactors
April has seen significant milestones in licensing of advanced reactors. We take a closer look at these developments, in particular the first submission of an advanced reactor license application in Canada.
On March 20, 2019, Global First Power (GFP), partnered with Ontario Power Generation and Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (Ultra Safe), submitted a license application…
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently released a staff paper-SECY-18-0096-seeking Commission approval of a new proposed methodology for establishing “functional containment” performance criteria for non-light water reactors (non-LWRs). This methodology would step away from deterministic containment design parameters and embrace a concept of “‘functional containment’ as a barrier, or a set of…
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…
NASA iTech and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) are collaborating on a unique competition to identify transformational energy technologies that can address critical problems here on Earth that also hold great potential to solve critical technology challenges in future space exploration. On that list: fission reactors.
NASA and…
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…
Nuclear power has had a busy year in 2017. One of the most important trends for preserving the existing fleet of operating nuclear power plants has been the financial commitment by US states to support nuclear power operating in their states and preserve their largest source of carbon-free power—and the thousands of jobs that go…
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) announced last week its second round of awards. A number of these awards have gone directly to advanced reactor startups, and they hope to push forward a number of technologies related to advanced reactors or next-generation light-water reactors.
We wanted to…
Wednesday, the NRC staff held a public meeting related to emergency planning for SMRs and other new reactor technologies. Slides from the meeting can be found here.
A few observations from the meeting—
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Last week the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the U.S. Department of Energy held their third joint advanced reactor workshop. The agenda focused on a variety of issues, including computer simulation of advanced reactors and updates from industry working groups. Although a lot of insights were realized, four takeaways we wanted to discuss…
On Friday, February 3, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published in the Federal Register draft “Guidance for Developing Principal Design Criteria for Non-Light Water Reactors.” This draft new regulatory guide (identified as DG-1330) helps explain how the NRC’s “general design criteria” for traditional light-water nuclear power plants could be applied to non-light…
