Consensus C&S provide acceptance criteria, methodologies, approaches, processes, and other data based on the accumulated experience of the industries they serve, nuclear and commercial, and documented by subject matter experts. The design of advanced reactors and a new generation of nuclear reactor construction challenge the context and numerous assumptions that the current consensus C&S are based on. The purpose of this document is to identify the most critical gaps related to C&S as well as actions and milestones required to successfully deploy more than 300 GW of new generating capacity with advanced reactors in North America in the 2030s.
Key Issue: Alignment and Improvement of C&S
The changes to the basic methodology and assumptions inherent in nearly all advanced reactor designs, construction methods, and operating parameters need to be understood, challenged, and embraced. Advanced reactors will not come to fruition without industry, government, Indigenous, and public stakeholders’ engagement and stepping out of the legacy’s “this is how it’s always been done” mindset.
ACTION:
Priority
Status
Identify gaps in and timelines for advanced reactor C&S:
- Consolidate and update prior advanced reactor C&S gap analyses
- Define development timelines for commercial relevance
- Prioritize gaps and associated actions
- Secure resources, manpower, and funding to address gaps in and timelines for advanced reactor C&S development
Action Owner: SDOs, NEI, CNA, CSA, EPRI, INPO, and advanced reactor vendors
Need Date: 2024 gap identified (complete), 2025 for timeline and assigned resources
Progress to Date on Addressing Key Issue: The Advanced Reactor Codes and Standards Collaborative (ARCSC) was established. This collaboration will ensure coordination and engagement among Standards Development Organizations (SDOs), reactor designers, regulators, and other interested stakeholders to develop a roadmap of needs for new or updated codes and standards, to record which SDO is undertaking specific activities, and to track the progress of new and revised standards development. Through a gap analysis exercise performed in 2023 and 2024, industry standards of significance were identified. Those standards with the highest-ranking priority were identified and validated by the advanced reactor designers for concurrence. ARCSC is in the process of listing those standards in need of the highest priority for both manpower and funding.
Key Issue: RIPB Design Approach
Historically, plants were designed using deterministic methods on a component level with system classification and other design conditions as input. Although constructing components will remain largely a deterministic approach, there is a growing belief that a RIPB approach to select licensing basis events, safety classification of SSCs (SSC such as NEI 18-04 in the United States), and maintenance strategies (monitoring, nondestructive evaluation, and so on) would lead to a more optimized plant design for construction and operation. However, a probabilistic and system-based approach is more complex than current risk-informed methods, and many codes and standards are not directly compatible.
ACTION:
Priority
Status
Demonstrate RIPB classification approaches: Develop and execute at least one pilot project that applies RIPB methods in development of a new advanced reactor standard jointly with U.S. and Canadian SDOs.
Action Owner: American Nuclear Society (ANS), ASME, and CSA with NEI, CNA and advanced reactor vendors
Need Date: 2025
Priority
Status
Update or develop C&S to support RIPB approaches: Update existing C&S to incorporate the benefits of RIPB approaches. These updates should account for pressure boundaries and reactor buildings that no longer perform safety-related fission product retention functions, electrical and instrumentation and control (I&C) equipment that no longer must design to the single failure criterion, a general move from prescriptive requirements to performance-based targets and methods for achieving those targets, and an emphasis on reliability goals instead of deterministic requirements. If necessary, create new C&S to facilitate more efficient C&S development.
Action Owner: NEI, ASME, ANS, American Society of Civil Engineers, SDOs, and advanced reactor vendors
Need Date: 2025
Progress to Date on Addressing Key Issue: Relationships and regular engagement among potential collaborators have been established under the ARCSC SDO collaborative umbrella.