Key Issue: Site Selection and Evaluation
The site selection process requires the collection of significant safety and environmental information and detailed analysis that must be supplied to the NRC to support an applicant’s siting decision. A site must meet NRC regulatory requirements for construction and operation (that is, requirements related to site suitability and radiological health and safety). An applicant also must comply with environmental review requirements under NEPA and 10 CFR Part 51 for the consideration of alternative sites. Some requirements might be outdated or inapplicable due to advancements in reactor technologies and analytical methods as well as expected new non-electric applications of advanced reactors (such as process heat).
Priority
2
Status
Complete-Monitoring
Develop guidance for site selection and evaluation: The guidance will focus on simplifying and streamlining the site selection and site suitability evaluation processes for advanced reactors, including reactors that might be sited on former coal-fired power plant sites.
Action Owner: NGOs, Industry Groups
Need Date: 2025
Key Issue: Environmental Assessments (Canada)
For Canada, to have one project, assessment, and decision, it will be key to coordinate federal reviews between the two agencies involved (the CNSC and the Impact Assessment Agency) along with the provincial or territorial environment assessment process. Reviews of second-of-a-kind and fleet deployments need to take credit for assessments of safety performed in FOAK deployments and focus instead on the site-specific project differences.
Priority
1
Status
On Track
Streamline the Canadian Impact Assessment Act and CNSC Environmental Assessment for Advanced Reactors. Specifically:
- Short term: Ensure no delays at the regulator end to the legislated or regulated assessment timelines. Drive for Tailored Impact Statement Guidelines that have appropriate scope for nuclear projects.
- Medium term: Revise implementing regulations to streamline the process and shorten timelines, especially as applied to the Nth-of-a-kind and fleet deployments, to require only assessment of site-specific aspects, not reassessment of aspects addressed at other sites.
- Revise federal acts and provincial legislation to recognize the climate-change imperative and environmental benefits of nuclear power. Revise legislative requirements appropriately to enable faster, more predictable deployment of energy sources that do not emit greenhouse gases.
Action Owner: NGOs, Industry Groups
Need Date: 2023, sustained