Risk-informed licensing for advanced reactors

Recent developments in the United States nuclear industry include pre-application discussions between potential licensees and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for new plants, some based on non-light water reactor technology. One of the major challenges to the successful deployment of new nuclear plants in the United States is the regulatory process, which is largely based on water-reactor technology. With the initiation of pre-application discussions for new plant designs, the industry and the NRC are addressing the applicability of the current set of regulatory requirements to the proposed new designs. One outcome of the focus on proposed new plants is the development of new licensing approaches. The current efforts for existing plants and proposed new plants focus on adapting the current set of requirements and standards for near-term application. Beyond these current efforts, our team has been pursuing the application of a more aggressive risk-informed approach to all regulatory requirements and industry standards, as well as to the regulatory process, focusing upon those issues that affect the design and licensing of new nuclear power plants. We have extended the previous development of our framework and have been investigating approaches for defining quantitative risk criteria that have the potential to provide a consistent basis for regulatory decisions, independent of the reactor concept, within our framework.