Canadian and United States nuclear regulators have signed a first-of-a-kind Memorandum of Cooperation that will see our two countries collaborate on the technical reviews of advanced reactor and small modular reactor technologies.
Kristine Svinicki, Chair of the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Rumina Velshi, President and CEO of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, signed the MOC in Ottawa that is specifically designed “to increase regulatory effectiveness through collaborative work on the technical reviews of advanced reactor and small modular reactor technologies.”
The MOC, the first of its kind between U.S. and Canadian regulators on nuclear power development, builds on a joint memorandum of understanding signed by the regulators in 2017.
“Signing of this memorandum further shapes our commitment to open and transformative thinking with our Canadian partners, enhancing our willingness to work together on matters of advanced nuclear power safety developments while increasing regulatory effectiveness,” Svinicki said. “Advanced technologies are emerging at a rapid pace, demanding that regulators keep in step with modernization initiatives and the technologies of the future.”
Benefits of the collaboration, according to the NRC, include increasing the effectiveness of both agencies and allowing for a shared approach to resolve technical questions. This is key as one of the major hurdles to developing, and licensing, new technologies is the lack of sufficient staff to review and understand the new technologies, some of which are quite innovative.
Merging the efforts between both agencies will allow faster review and approval as well as faster detection of flaws that otherwise would slow the development.
Velshi noted, “Globally, interest and advances in small modular and advanced reactors are growing rapidly. The CNSC and the NRC are working together as regulatory leaders to ensure the development and deployment of these innovative technologies are done safely and efficiently. The signing of this memorandum further strengthens our long-standing history of collaboration with our U.S. counterparts and ensures the effectiveness and efficiency of our regulatory oversight for the future.”
Svinicki and Velshi announced in June that the agencies would begin exploring enhanced bilateral cooperation through joint regulatory reviews of developing nuclear technologies, including advanced reactors and small modular reactors. The MOC calls for the agencies to work under a previously established steering committee to begin developing the infra- structure needed to share and evaluate cooperative opportunities and best practices in the analysis of advanced reactor and SMR designs.
This development comes on the heels of other nuclear developments in the political world and an apparent uptick in nuclear power worldwide as an essential component of addressing global issues of energy and climate.
Last year, the United States led a similar initiative with several other governments to promote nuclear power and encourage investment in new nuclear technologies. In addition to Canada, those other countries included Japan, Russia, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Poland, Argentina and Romania. It remains to be seen whether the present U.S.-Russia relations will lead to Russia staying in the group.
Just last week, the United States entered into a nuclear agreement with Romania. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry signed a memorandum of understanding with Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila for possible nuclear technology exchanges.
Separate from these agreements, China and Russia have developed cooperative relationships with countries in Asia, Africa and South America.
About 30 countries are considering, planning or starting nuclear power programs, and a further 20 or so countries have at some point expressed an interest. Commercial nuclear power reactors are under construction in the UAE, Belarus, Bangladesh, and Turkey. Contractshave been signed and legal and regulatory infrastructure well-developed or developing in Lithuania, Poland, Vietnam.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded funds to build SMR simulators at three American universities - Oregon State University, Texas A&M University-College Station and the University of Idaho, NuScale Power has announced. The simulators will be used for research and educational purposes.
NuScale’s SMR design has almost completed its regulatory review by the NRC, and is likely to be the first commercial SMR built in America. Of course, the military has been using SMRs in its fleet of nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers for decades with no problems.
Canada is probably the best partner in any nuclear endeavor as they are looking to fill their looming energy supply gap, and address climate change, by building a fleet of new super-safe small modular nuclear reactors over the next 20 years. SMRs offer what they’ve always wanted – an economic, flexible, shippable reactor that cannot meltdown and whose waste is easy to deal with.
Congress is also moving forward slowly with nuclear-related legislation. The bipartisan Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act, S. 512, supporting new nuclear development, was signed by the President in January. The Nuclear Energy Leadership Act, S. 903, passed the Senate in early September, and aims to restore U.S. leadership in the civil nuclear industry by helping to develop a range of advanced reactor technologies that are clean, safe and reliable.
Of course, they already are clean, safe and reliable, but if it takes saying it over and over again to get us moving, and to get candidates to support it, that’s fine.
Another bill, the Nuclear Energy Renewal Act, was introduced by a bipartisan group of senators Aug 1st led by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Martha McSally (R-AR) that calls for extending the life of the country’s existing nuclear fleet.
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change approved bipartisan legislation (H.R. 2699) by Representatives Jerry McNerney (D-CA) and John Shimkus (R-IL) that would jump-start the Yucca Mountain licensing process, authorizer consolidated interim storage, and provide financial incentives for states to attract communities to participate as consent-based host sites.
This legislation is identical to H.R. 3053, which passed the House 340-72 last year only to languish in the Senate. H.R. 2699 faces an uphill climb. Nevada lawmakers have sworn to oppose any measure to forward the Yucca Mountain Project.
The House Science, Space and Technology Committee is working on its own advanced nuclear energy bill that incorporates many aspects of the separate Nuclear Energy Leadership Act. The science committee's bill also includes a call for advanced nuclear reactor design demonstration projects.
Last year, Congress told key federal agencies to explore Advanced Nuclear Reactors, requiring DOD and DOE to explore siting, constructing and operating micro-reactors at critical national security locations.
With all this activity suggesting nuclear will increase in importance in the future, I just hope it moves fast enough to reach some key level before I die.
