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Towards a Technology Neutral Nuclear Safety and Regulatory Framework: Applicability of IAEA Safety Standards to SMRs - Questionnaire to SMR Vendors
Description
The IAEA has an important role to support Member States and Regulatory Bodies to develop nuclear safety and regulatory framework that is applicable to Small Modular Reactors. The IAEA safety standards reflect an international consensus among Member States on what constitutes a high level of safety for protecting people and the environment from harmful effects of ionizing radiation. Although the IAEA safety standards are intended to be technology neutral, they may be unintentionally influenced by technology specific issues of water-cooled large reactors, as most of the experience and knowledge in the Member States contributing to them is focused predominantly on that technology.
The IAEA is developing a Safety Report to propose a mechanism and framework of application of IAEA safety standards to all types of SMR, including water cooled SMR, high temperature gas cooled reactors (HTGR), sodium fast reactors (SFR), lead fast reactors (LFR), molten salt reactors (MSR), marine based SMRs and micro reactors. The publication will provide a mapping of areas of the safety standards that are technology neutral and applicable to all types of SMRs and identify gaps in applicability.
A key input to this publication is the identification of relevant areas of novelty of SMRs. This will be based on the information obtained through a questionnaire that will be distributed to SMR vendors that are mentioned in the 2020 IAEA SMR booklet.
The identification of relevant areas of novelty of SMRs will also be useful to inform regulators that are currently considering or planning to consider the applicability of their regulatory frameworks to SMRs. In particular, the identification of areas of novelty and applicability of safety standards will provide input to the SMR Regulators Forum and will also be presented to the various Safety Standards Committees.
The webinar will include:
- Opening Remarks (Vesselina Ranguelova)
- The ongoing work to develop a Technology Neutral Nuclear Safety and Regulatory Framework: Applicability of IAEA Safety Standards to SMRs (Paula Calle Vives)
- An overview of the SMR questionnaire and relevant safety standards (Paula Calle Vives)
- High temperature gas cooled SMRs: Examples and presentation of generic questionnaires (Gerd Brinkmann)
- Sodium Fast SMRs: Examples and presentation of generic questionnaires (Kubo Shigenobu)
- Lead Fast SMRs: Examples and presentation of generic questionnaires (Giacomo Grasso)
- Molten Salt SMRs: Examples and presentation of generic questionnaires (David Holcomb)
- Experiences from vendors that have already filled the questionnaire
Presenters
Vesselina Ranguelova, IAEA
Gerd Brinkmann, BriVaTech Consulting, Germany
Kubo Shigenobu, Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), Japan
Giacomo Grasso, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Italy
David Holcomb, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), USA
Moderator
Paula Calle Vives, IAEA