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Developing a new regulatory framework for advanced reactors: Update on Part 53
White
The American Nuclear Society’s Risk-informed, Performance-based Principles and Policy Committee (RP3C) on March 29 held another presentation in its monthly Community of Practice (CoP) series. The presenter, Patrick White with the Nuclear Innovation Alliance (NIA), talked about the current status of efforts to develop a new regulatory framework for advanced reactors—known as 10 CFR Part 53 or simply Part 53. White serves as the research director of the NIA, where he leads their research as well as analysis-based stakeholder and policymaker engagement and education. White’s March 29 presentation is publicly available on YouTube and at ANS’s publication platform Nuclear Science and Technology Open Research (NSTOR).
RP3C chair N. Prasad Kadambi opened the CoP with brief introductory remarks about the RP3C before he welcomed White as the session’s presenter.
White covered three main topics: the history of the existing regulatory frameworks for new reactors, progress to date on the development of the Part 53 rule for advanced reactors, and the current status and next steps for the Part 53 rulemaking process.
Bernhard Kienzler, Peter Vejmelka, Jürgen Römer, Dieter Schild, Mats Jansson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 165 | Number 2 | February 2009 | Pages 223-240
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management and Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A4088
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Within the scope of a cooperation between Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB and Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a series of actinide migration experiments were performed both in the laboratory and at the Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory in Sweden. The objectives of these experiments were to quantify the sorption of different actinide elements in single fractures of a granite host rock and to investigate the sorption mechanisms. To guarantee the most realistic conditions - as close to nature as possible - in situ experiments were performed in the Chemlab 2 borehole probe. These migration experiments were complemented by laboratory sorption and migration studies. The latter included batch experiments with flat chips of natural material extracted from fracture surfaces to identify the mineral phases relevant to radionuclide sorption by means of autoradiography. Scanning electron microscopy analyses provided information on the composition of sorption-relevant phases and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of Np, Tc, and Fe distribution revealed the redox states of these elements. Important mineral phases retaining all actinides and Tc were Fe-bearing phases.From the migration experiments, elution curves of the inert tracer (HTO), Np(V), U(VI), and to a small extent of Tc(VII) were obtained. Americium(III) and plutonium(IV) were not eluted. The mechanisms influencing the migration of the elements Np, U, and Tc depended on redox reactions. It was shown by various independent methods that Np(V) was reduced to the tetravalent state on the fracture surfaces, thus resulting in a pronounced dependence of the recovery on the residence time. Technetium was also retained in the tetravalent state. Elution of natural uranium from the granite drill cores was significant and is discussed in detail.