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Small modular reactors (SMRs) generate three hundred megawatts or less of electricity. They are being promoted as smaller, less complex, safer, more economical and easier to construct and deploy than current commercial nuclear power reactors which generally generate over one gigawatt of electricity. Some promoters of SMRs believe that a major paradigm shift is required to enable their safe deployment with the speed and magnitude necessary.
Rumina Velshi is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). She chairs the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Commission for Safety Standards. She recently gave a major speech on SMR prospects to the Fourth International Conference on Generation IV and Small Reactors (G4SR-4). The following comments cover some of the highlights of her speech.
Velshi pointed out that much of the SMR focus is on the ‘S’ in SMR but what really sets them apart from current power reactors is the ‘M’ in SMR. If SMRs are going to play a significant role in fighting climate change and addressing energy security, the world needs to capitalize on their modular potential. SMRs will need to be deployed more quickly, less expensively and much more widespread than current commercial power reactors. The nuclear sector will require a significant shift from traditional large-scale projects to a more streamlined product-based model.
With respect to safety of nuclear power reactors, it will always come first as far as regulators are concerned so there is no need for a shift there. On the other hand, regulators do not want to an unnecessary burden or impediment to innovative technologies including SMRs. Velshi believes that this extends to regulators doing their part in bringing about the enabling conditions necessary to support the possibility of a safe and efficient product-based model of SMR deployment. This will not be easy. It will take time and it will require a retooling of the existing international governance of the nuclear industry and a willingness to be bold. Velshi says that there are five enabling conditions that must be considered.
First, there must be movement towards the international harmonization of regulation. Second, there needs to be efforts made on the international standardization of designs or design requirements. Third, all of this must be anchored in effective international oversight involving collaboration previously not witnessed in the nuclear sector. Fourth, political will must be found to make these changes. Fifth, everything that is done must prioritize the building of trust.
International harmonization of regulations will certainly not be achieved overnight, if ever. However, there are solid steps that regulators around the world can take to move the yardstick in the right direction. This includes harmonizing codes and standards and finding opportunities to coordinate, leverage, and/or adopt technology reviews by other regulators. Nuclear licensing processes must be challenged in order to ensure that they are appropriate for SMRs based on risks. However, all this must be done in a way that allows for continued national sovereignty in regulatory decision-making.
Unfortunately, regulatory harmonization and the efficiencies that would follow from it cannot occur on the seventy-plus SMR designs currently being proposed.
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