If we want to protect the climate, we need to support nuclear carbon-free energy with smarter regulations at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Smarter Regulations Mean Reduced Carbon Emissions
Numerous organizations—like the World Resources Institute, the International Energy Agency and others—have said that nuclear carbon-free energy is key to any viable climate solution. Nuclear provides more than 55 percent of the carbon-free electricity in the United States. With advanced reactors on the horizon, nuclear can be responsible for even more carbon-free generation while helping to decarbonize additional sections of the economy too.
Last October, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identified nuclear as one of the technologies necessary to hold global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. All of the IPCC’s model pathways to avoid climate change include “increases in nuclear power generation by 2050, ranging between 59 percent and 501 percent.”
But that all depends on a transformed, modern regulator keeping pace with an evolving industry. The U.S. nuclear industry is performing at unprecedented levels of safety and operational excellence. Failing to account for the exceptional performance of the current fleet leads to stagnation and threatens the longevity of these climate-protecting assets. And if smarter regulations for the current fleet aren’t adopted now, then the next generation of reactors won’t become a reality.
The combined result could not only harm the industry, it would harm the health of our climate and the American public.
Smarter regulation facilitates greater safety-focused decision-making at current plants and ensures that new, advanced nuclear technology can become a reality in the United States.
The NRC Is the Global Gold Standard and Should Keep Leading
The NRC exists to ensure that the industry upholds the highest safety standards, and the agency is doing so. The NRC is globally recognized as the premier nuclear safety regulator in the world. This leadership role has, in part, come about because the Commission has shown a willingness to examine and evolve its requirements so that it can best focus on safety. This evolution began nearly 30 years ago, in fact.
Ultimately, this makes sense. By prioritizing safety, the NRC is doing its job as an independent, modern regulator. The highest level of safety comes from a focus on what matters—priority items should be given the greatest and most immediate attention.
That focus changes as time moves forward. Experience teaches us how to do things in a better, more efficient way, and improvements in technology require constant evaluation of regulatory procedures.
As the industry modernizes at a faster rate than the NRC, outdated regulations become irrelevant or worse: an impediment to new technology. As a result, technology that could dramatically improve safety can be mired in antiquated processes.
For example, digital sensors on parts throughout the plant could tell operators when certain parts need to be replaced. This digitalization would improve safety and reduce maintenance needs. But excessively detailed reviews will keep these advances from becoming reality, preventing improvements in safety and efficiency.
Smarter Regulation Improves Safety and Enables Innovation
America’s 96 nuclear reactors operate excellently. Measured levels of safety in plants have improved by a factor of 10 using safety-focused methods and in response to the NRC’s adoption of safety-focused approaches. In fact, the NRC’s own research over the past decade has shown that U.S. reactors are 100 times safer than previously understood, when compared to the agency’s goals. This foundation of excellence enables the NRC to further streamline its regulatory focus based on the current levels of safety.
Streamlining regulations does not mean compromising on this safety. On the contrary: smarter regulations can help the NRC and nuclear plant operators allocate time and resources to areas that most impact safety.
The current inspection process for the NRC is part of a safety grading system that hasn’t been updated in 19 years. In that time, how we operate plants—and how well we do so—has changed. NRC oversight should match this new reality—and the agency’s staff agrees. Plus, the foundation of NRC oversight will not be affected: there will still be two resident inspectors at every site who have unfettered access to anything at any time.
Inefficiency doesn’t only impact our current reactors; it affects our future clean energy producers as well. Fear of a rigid and unpredictable regulatory framework is driving the next generation of nuclear entrepreneurs abroad. We must use an enhanced safety focus to remove barriers to innovations so we can accelerate development of new nuclear technology.
NuScale Power LLC’s small modular reactor (SMR) design is under review by the NRC. While it is keeping to the original schedule of three years, that is not fast enough to move forward with advanced nuclear technologies given the urgency of climate change. It is essential that the NRC apply a modernized safety focus to future SMRs and advanced reactors if we want to make progress on climate.
With the Climate at Risk, Smarter Regulations Are Critical
A strong, efficient and effective regulator will enable our greatest source of carbon-free electricity to continue protecting the climate. Smart regulation means focusing on what matters most and continuing to assure the highest levels of safety while allowing the current fleet and the next generation of reactors to innovate. The challenge of climate change requires nothing less of us.
Updated on Oct. 4, 2019