Smaller Nuclear Plants May Come With Less Stringent Safety Rules

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Not your grandmother’s nuclear reactor. A drawing of Oklo’s proposed Aurora nuclear power plant, which would produce enough electricity for about 1000 homes.

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Oklo

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Artist rendering of NuScale Power’s nuclear power plant design, which would use small modular reactors.

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NuScale Power

Environment And Energy Collaborative
This Company Says The Future Of Nuclear Energy Is Smaller, Cheaper And Safer

Deputy Under Secretary Jay Tilden called the proposed rule a major departure from «the successful 42-year-old practice of using a 10-mile plume exposure emergency planning zone.» That existing regulation, he wrote, provides «the last layer of a defense-in-depth for low-probability, high-consequence accidents.»

But a day later, U.S. Department of Energy Spokesperson Jessica Szymanski said the comments «do not represent the official position of DOE or NNSA.» She said both agencies support the proposed rulemaking.

That’s in line with nuclear industry arguments that these plants are simpler and safer, and so deserve different and less stringent regulations.

«As technology evolves, the regulations should evolve to match the new state of technology,» says Marcus Nichol, senior director of new reactors at the Nuclear Energy Institute.

Nichol says there’s a lot of knowledge about how these new reactor designs work, and years of testing behind the components.

Previous accidents — including Three Mile Island in 1979 — stopped the nuclear industry’s growth. Nichol says companies and regulators are committed to making sure these new plants are safe.

«We recognize that if we were to do anything that’s not safe, that is the end of our industry as we know it,» he says.

The NRC has extended a comment period on the proposed rule to September 25th. A final rule on whether to shrink evacuation zones around plants is expected next year.