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Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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DOE announces NEPA exclusion for advanced reactors
The Department of Energy has announced that it is establishing a categorical exclusion for the application of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures to the authorization, siting, construction, operation, reauthorization, and decommissioning of advanced nuclear reactors.
According to the DOE, this significant change, which goes into effect today, “is based on the experience of DOE and other federal agencies, current technologies, regulatory requirements, and accepted industry practice.”
Educational Session|Panel|Plant Reliability
Tuesday, August 9, 2022|10:30AM–12:00PM EDT|Banyan 2
Session Chair:
Tim Schlimpert (MCR)
Track Organizer:
Emmett Wilmes (MPR)
Knowledge Manager:
Ashley Bridgmon (Southern Co.)
With higher labor costs compared to other generation fuel sources, Nuclear Plants are highly incented to maintain reliability during operating cycles, making the most of every hour generating electricity. Over time, the industry has realized reliability today is driven by investment decisions made years in the past through long range planning. Aging and obsolescence issues may take decades to develop into current threats to reliability. If there were no limitations on funding, human resources, or capacity factors, maintaining reliability would not be such a challenge. However, having limitations in all these areas, licensees are forced to make sound investment decisions many fuel cycles into the future. The importance of these decisions is even more relevant when Subsequent License Renewals are at stake. This session will present approaches to optimize future capital investment including the extended horizons of Subsequent License Renewals. The panel will discuss the challenges of “complete discovery” and the value of portfolio optimization.
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