Dive Brief:
- New advanced reactor licensing guidance the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued March 25 could “significantly reduce the regulatory uncertainty for new reactor concepts that don’t fit the mold of conventional reactor technologies,” the U.S. Department Energy said in a news release.
- The guidance provides a detailed road map for companies submitting licensing applications for non-light water reactor technologies such as high-temperature gas-cooled reactors and molten salt reactors, along with internal guidance for NRC staff reviewing these applications.
- The move should reassure those concerned about the NRC’s ability to assess advanced nuclear reactor technologies, Nuclear Innovation Alliance Director of Research Patrick White told Utility Dive in an interview. “People have been asking whether the NRC is ready to license advanced reactors, and this is [its way of saying], ‘Yep, we’re ready,’” he said.
Dive Insight:
The new NRC guidance helps clear the way for the first commercial advanced reactor construction permit and reactor licensing applications. The NRC expects at least two construction permit applications under the new guidance this year, the agency said.
The guidance is the “next step in formalizing how the regulatory process works for non-light water reactors” under the existing licensing framework governed by federal regulations 10 CFR Parts 50 and 52, White said. That process began in the 2010s as the Licensing Modernization Project, led by Southern Co. and other industry participants, he said.
Removing regulatory uncertainty around advanced reactor applications under Parts 50 and 52 is crucial for technologies ready to move to commercialization now, White said. The NRC’s Part 53 regulation, a more flexible framework specific to advanced reactors, may not be ready for applications until 2026 or 2027, White added.
On March 29, TerraPower submitted a construction permit application to the NRC as it works to build its first commercial Natrium sodium-cooled fast reactor at the site of a coal-fired power station in Kemmerer, Wyoming. TerraPower submitted its application under Part 50, TerraPower Director of External Affairs Jeff Navin said in an interview.
“Given our timeline, we decided to use the existing two-part Part 50 process,” Navin said.
TerraPower plans to begin construction in late spring or early summer, once a DOE environmental review is complete, and it hopes to begin power-generating operations by 2030, the company said in a news release last year.
The NRC also expects X-energy to submit a construction permit application for its planned high-temperature gas-cooled reactor in Seadrift, Texas, which is slated to provide electricity and process heat to a Dow petrochemical plant. The DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations has approved providing TerraPower and X-energy a combined $3.2 billion through 2028 via the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Projects program, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
Despite delays in finalizing Part 53 and the existing licensing framework’s suitability for its technology, TerraPower’s Navin is optimistic about the potential for future Natrium reactors to be licensed under the new regulation. NRC commissioners ordered substantial changes last month to the Part 53 draft regulation in a move Navin said many industry stakeholders view “as positive for the NRC’s ability to use Part 53 to license future [advanced] reactors.”
Accordingly, Part 53 might be an option for future customers to license Natrium reactors, Navin said. Regulated entities often complain about their regulators, he added, but “we see a strong commitment from the NRC to ensure innovative designs like Natrium have a viable path forward.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the date TerraPower submitted a construction permit application for its Natrium reactor and mischaracterized the type of reactor. The construction permit application for the sodium-cooled reactor was submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on March 29.
