Laying the Foundation for New and Advanced Nuclear Reactors in the United States (2023) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 155-177
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2022a. Merits and Viability of Different Nuclear Fuel Cycles and Technology Options and the Waste Aspects of Advanced Nuclear Reactors.
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1972. "Social Institutions and Nuclear Energy." Science 177(4043)
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This chapter describes the means that support the security of civilian nuclear power facilities and that ensure proper safeguarding of nuclear material and information within a nuclear facility.3 The committee highlights the challenges of ensuring security and safeguards at new and advanced reactors and their new deployment scenarios and provides recommendations. SECURITY Security in the United States is regulated by the NRC in 10 CFR Part 73 and in the case of power reactors is reflected in a series of plans: a Physical Security Plan, a Training and Qualification Plan, a Safeguards Contingency Plan, and a Cyber Security Plan.4 The committee focuses first on physical security.
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The DBT is based on current assessments of the tactics, techniques, and procedures of international and domestic terrorist groups and organizations. The specific details of the DBT are not publicly available, but, in general, the DBT outlines threats and adversary characteristics against which a licensee must demonstrate it can defend its facility.6 In addition, other open-source information on current and potential threats could impact the development and deployment of new and advanced reactors.7 Nuclear power plants (NPPs)
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. In August 2022 the NRC staff sought authorization from the Commission to publish a proposed rule that would offer voluntary performance-based alternatives for meeting certain physical security requirements for advanced reactors (NRC 2022)
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Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff has proposed significant modifications to physi cal security requirements to accommodate designs and operations proposed by licensees of advanced reactors that differ from larger light water power reactors.
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.16 Each advanced reactor vendor is required to develop a cybersecurity plan and maintain a cybersecurity program as part of security protocols. Advanced reactor vendors face significantly different challenges than the designers of the existing LWR fleet.
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Advanced reactors present new MC&A and safeguards challenges because they use new fuels and fuel cycles, new reactor designs, longer operation cycles, new supply arrangements, new spent fuel management, diverse operational roles, and unattended monitoring systems (Cipiti 2022)
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2021) .22 Enhancing advanced reactor safeguards, especially for the particularly challenging case of continuous liquid fueled systems, requires addressing some key technology gaps.23 Pebble bed reactors will require measuring the final isotopic content when pebbles may have differing burnup histories or different initial enrichment levels, requiring the advancement of technologies such as radioisotope pebble tagging, predictive pebble tracking, burnup estimation, and NDA techniques.24 For continuous liquid fueled reactors, instrumentation capable of making the following measurements is needed:25 • Determining isotopic composition of the liquid fuel, considering potential inhomogeneity • Volume of salt in key areas: reactor core, pumps, processing tanks, storage tanks • Identification of volumetric changes (deliberate or unintentional)
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There is also a need for the vendors to engage early in their designs to fully understand IAEA safeguards requirements and implementation. Because the first vendors will bear the largest cost burden in developing and implementing safeguards for new advanced reactor designs that other vendors may incorporate, the IAEA and DOE should develop cost incentive-based programs to encourage early-adopter vendor participation in safeguards development.
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advanced reactor community to educate stakeholders on IAEA safeguards and promote timely incorporation of international safeguards by design (DOE-NNSA 2017, 2022)
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national laboratories also have considerable experience in working with international partners and could offer lessons learned to all stakeholders on the infrastructure for cooperative ventures, especially on a range of knowledge management issues, such as export controls, intangible technology transfers, collaborating and hosting foreign nationals, and visa conditions. DOE has also enhanced cross-domain research and development that will enable more rapid development efforts through a new program called ANSWER (an acronym for Advanced Nuclear Security, Waste and Energy R&D)
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In addition, the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency have initiated complementary programs to support the long-term effort needed to develop effective nuclear frameworks for the deployment of new and advanced reactors. Recommendation 9-5: The United States should develop a plan for increased and sustained long-term financial and technical support for capacity building in partner countries, including cost requirements for using U.S.
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2020. "Small Modular Reactors and Advanced Reactor Security: Regulatory Perspectives on Integrating Physical and Cyber Security by Design to Protect Against Malicious Acts and Evolving Threats." International Journal of Nuclear Security 7(1)
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2022. "Proposed Rule: Alternative Physical Security Requirements for Advanced Reactors." SECY-22-0072.
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vendors in global markets, such as a complicated set of rules to market and sell nuclear products internationally, increased competition among nations, and potential expansion of nuclear reactors into newcomer countries that may lack effective government, industry, and societal frameworks to support the facilities. These potential barriers (some of which U.S.
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.2 Negotiating new or renegotiating existing international legal instruments, either binding or non-binding, typically takes many years of effort with no guarantee of successful conclusion. Opportunities for crafting new global governance instruments for advanced reactors could arise, from the work by the IAEA3 or out of necessity in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine (see Box 10-1)
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Meserve, "What We Learned from Russia's Assaults on Nuclear Plants," OneDefense, https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2022/03/what-we-learned-russias-assaults-nuclear-plants/363487; A Alkis¸, "Nuclear Security During Armed Conflict," Stimson, https://www.stimson.org/2022/nuclear-security-during-armed-conflict)
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and global nuclear cooperation agreements (NCAs) and nuclear export controls and the implications for the development and deployment of new and advanced reactors.
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SOURCE: K Strangis, 2021, "Overview of 10 CFR Part 810 Program," Slide 3, Presented at Laying the Foundation for New and Advanced Nuclear Reactors in the United States Meeting #8, October 5.
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tangible nuclear items nuclear equipment and NRC w/input from ~months to more than licenses materials, nuclear reactors DOE, Commerce, DoD a yeara and components of reactors, etc. Export Administration dual-use items: turbines, generators, Commerce consensus 90 calendar days Regulations (EAR)
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Nuclear Regulatory Commission Preparations for the Export of Advanced Reactors," https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/ip/us-nrc-prep-export-advanced-reactors.html.
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Nuclear Regulatory Commission Preparations for the Export of Advanced Reactors," https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/ip/export-import/us-nrc-prep-export-advanced-reactors.html. 21 Bureau of Industry and Security, 2020, "Commerce Control List (CCL)
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