Regulatory Innovation to Support Advanced Reactors

All commercial nuclear power plants operating in the US are light water reactors (LWRs), in which the coolant and the moderator are ordinary water. Many vendors seek to commercialize different types of reactors - so-called "advanced reactors" - that are radically different from existing LWRs. All of the existing US reactors, with the exception of two now under construction in Georgia, were licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) under a regulatory scheme defined in the Code of Federal Regulations, 10CFR Part 50 (NRC 2018a). Under this licensing paradigm, an applicant first obtains a construction permit and then, while construction is underway, seeks an operating license. There is great interest in the commercialization of advanced reactors, but their licensing presents serious regulatory challenges. The business case for many of the new designs assumes that many existing regulatory requirements can be relaxed or modified in light of their inherent safety features.