Tag:nrc
Regulatory Challenges in Small Modular Reactor Deployment
As the nuclear energy industry pivots toward small modular reactors (SMRs) to meet the growing demand for a clean, efficient, and reliable energy source, developers face a multilayered regulatory landscape. Navigating the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) licensing process, evolving legislation, and supply chain challenges present both legal and operational risks as the United States attempts to achieve energy independence.
Delivering the Nuclear Promise . . . Revisited
I authored a post last year regarding the nuclear energy industry’s current initiative to reduce operational costs to compete with the ever-dropping cost of energy production. Coined “Delivering the Nuclear Promise,” the initiative aims to enlist cost-cutting initiatives such as reducing staffing and removing superfluous requirements that maintain large margin to regulatory thresholds. Companies have set hefty goals to bring the cost of nuclear energy production down to values that would make nuclear energy competitive against less expensive, highly backed, and not-as-clean, forms of energy. This all needs to be done without sacrificing safety.
In order to achieve these drastic measures, I will set forth the case for on-the-rise technologies, that while the nuclear energy industry does not currently have the infrastructure to support, will aide in this transition, and as I argue, ultimately be required in order to sustain this clean and necessary form of energy.