Four Takeaways from Advanced Reactor Workshop

Although a lot of insights were realized, four takeaways we wanted to discuss include:

• The Need for a Test Reactor: Multiple panelists, including those designing simulation codes for advanced reactors, discussed a need for physical testing to validate new designs.  A new test reactor was suggested to be especially critical for validating new fuel designs.  We have recently discussed the importance for a test reactor for the advanced reactor community, as well as novel attempts to overcome the hurdles with building a new test reactor.

•  NRC Acceptance of Vendor Codes: Panelists suggested at the conference that the NRC may be willing to use the same simulation codes as relied on by reactor designers for validation of new designs.  The viewpoint otherwise has been that the NRC would have to rely on or even create a totally separate simulation code to validate a particular design, which is both difficult and costly.

• A Push for Consensus Standards: The importance of developing consensus standards, through organizations such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, was reemphasized at the workshop as a way for licensees to take the design of the regulatory framework into their own hands.  As one panelist noted, regulatory agencies in general are encouraged by statute and executive order to adopt consensus standards where possible.  It was also suggested that this approach could apply to simulation codes.

• Licensing Technical Requirements Modernization: Southern Company is leading a team effort to identify aspects of the technical regulatory framework that need to be updated to support licensing of advanced reactors.  According to a description of the effort, in areas where gaps were identified the team would propose risk-informed and/or performance-based practices on a technology-inclusive basis.

At the conference it was explained that the result of this effort would be white papers that would eventually be turned into Nuclear Energy Institute-issued and NRC-approved guidance documents. The first such white paper will be on licensing basis events.

The speaker presentations can be found here.  

Authored by Amy Roma and Sachin Desai.