This month, the Cooperation in Reactor Design Evaluation and Licensing (CORDEL) Working Group of World Nuclear Association (WNA). issued a report regarding nuclear plant licensing. Currently, nuclear reactor designs proposed for deployment in a country are assessed by the national nuclear regulators of that country. A full regulatory review is carried out by each nation regardless of whether a particular design has been reviewed and certified by the nuclear regulators of another country. This national approach to certification often results in design changes being required which result in additional cost, time and regulatory burden. There are also complexities and loss of efficiencies associated with managing multiple designs of the same basic reactor model.
     The CORDEL report is titled Harmonization of Reactor Design Evaluation and Licensing: Lessons Learned from Transport. It was created in collaboration with the Candu Owners Group and calls for the traditional model for commercial nuclear reactor deployment “to be changed towards the international standardization of reactor designs and harmonization of approaches to licensing”. The report says that this new approach would result in “improved economics, regulatory efficiency, and enhanced design efficiency and safety”.
      Sama Bilbao y León is Director General of the WNA. He said, “The streamlining of international standards and licensing processes for new nuclear reactors is urgent and essential. This is particularly important for the successful deployment of SMRs, whose business case relies on the establishment of global markets and supply chains.”
     The CORDEL report drew on experience in the transportation of radioactive materials. Such transportation has been undertaken in a harmonized regulatory framework for six decades.
      The International Atomic Energy Agency first published its Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material (SSR-6) in 1961. Since that time there have been more than half a billion packages of radioactive materials shipped worldwide. There has never been a transportation incident that caused a significant radiological hazard to people or the environment. These nuclear transport regulations are sufficiently harmonized across international borders so that minimal design changes to shipment containers are necessary to meet individual national regulations. The technical reviews of a lead competent authority in an individual country can be easily validated by other competent authorities in other countries.
     The CORDEL report states that “Those tasked with devising the early nuclear transport regulations were able to put aside national differences and agree on common quantitative performance and testing criteria and terminology.” This established the foundations for today’s nuclear transport regulations. The report recommends that an international framework should be created for the harmonization of reactor design evaluation and licensing. The core of the proposed framework would be a multinational regulatory advisory panel made up of experts for individual national regulatory bodies. It would be empowered by an international agreement.
      Bilbao y León said that “Through the example of the Regulations for the Safe Transport of Radioactive Material, the new report illustrates that it is possible to effectively achieve harmonization in international nuclear regulation. The vision and leadership of the authors of this regulation recognized the importance of prioritizing the compatibility between national and international regulations as a necessity for the global nuclear energy industry.”