The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will conduct a mandatory hearing on October 19 regarding Kairos Power’s application for a construction permit to build a Hermes nonpower test reactor in Oak Ridge, Tenn. This hearing marks the final step in the agency’s review of the application.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff will hold a hybrid public meeting on September 7 to discuss the agency’s licensing and oversight of Centrus/American Centrifuge Operating’s American Centrifuge Plant, in Piketon, Ohio. The discussion will focus primarily on the company’s enrichment of high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU.

Clark

Brooke Poole Clark has been named general counsel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency announced yesterday. Clark has been serving as secretary of the NRC since April 2022. She will succeed Marian L. Zobler, who will be retiring this fall after 33 years of service. Clark’s appointment is effective October 15.

The job: In her new role, Clark will oversee the Office of the General Counsel, where she will direct matters of law and legal policy; provide legal opinions, advice, and assistance to the agency; monitor adjudicatory proceedings; provide legal interpretations; and represent and protect the interests of the NRC in legal matters.

Quote: “Brooke has 25 years of legal and leadership experience,” said NRC chair Christopher T. Hanson. “Her wealth of expertise on policy and regulatory issues from her experience in both the government and private sector makes her exceptionally qualified for this position. She will play an instrumental role in the challenges ahead.”

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission draft regulatory guide—DG-8061, “Release of Patients Administered Radioactive Material”—proposes guidance on the release of patients after a medical procedure involving the administration of radiopharmaceuticals or the implantation of a sealed source. The guidance is intended to help licensees interpret NRC regulations designed to protect the people—family, friends, caregivers, or members of the general public—who may be in proximity to a patient who is discharged after receiving nuclear medicine treatment.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has directed its staff to issue a final rule and associated regulatory guide that applies risk-informed, performance-based emergency preparedness requirements to small modular reactors and other new technologies, the agency announced on August 14. The technologies include non–light water reactors, research and test reactors, and medical radioisotope facilities.

More than 700 registered attendees descended on Florida’s Marco Island for the ANS Utility Working Conference this week, with many traveling through a wave of severe storms to get there—a fitting start to a meeting themed “Building Resiliency in a Rapidly Changing World.”

Three days of panels and educational sessions formally opened on Monday, August 7, with a plenary on “The Nuclear Industry’s State of Resiliency” featuring three invited speakers: Annie Caputo, NRC commissioner; Bob Willard, president and chief executive officer of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations; and Jeff Lyash, president and CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Matthew Rasmussen, general chair of the UWC and senior vice president for engineering and operations support at TVA, introduced the speakers following opening remarks from ANS President Kenneth Petersen and ANS Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy. Together, the plenary speakers pointed to challenges ahead in ensuring effective leadership, nuclear plant resilience, and energy security—and found cause for celebration in the recent and long-awaited announcement of commercial operation at Vogtle-3.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a new report, Metal Fuel Qualification--Fuel Assessment Using NRC NUREG-2246, “Fuel Qualification for Advanced Reactors,” which documents experience with the zirconium-clad ceramic fuel system in fast reactors and presents the fuel qualification case for a data-supported fuel design and set of operating conditions. The research includes identifying as-fabricated conditions (e.g., dimensions, chemistry) and in-pile conditions (e.g., linear heat generation rates, burnup, temperature) and anticipated operational occurrences.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported on July 27 that it has issued a license to Rare Element Resources Inc. for a proposed pilot project in Wyoming to demonstrate a proprietary process to extract rare earth elements from ore.

Robert P. Martin and Thomas E. Roberts have been appointed to four-year terms on the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced on July 20.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Ghana Nuclear Regulatory Authority reaffirmed last week its shared commitment to continue cooperation on nuclear safety and regulation for the African nation.

Human factors engineering and risk analysis are part of every instrumentation and control upgrade and new reactor plan—from design and licensing to implementation and operation—and applications continue to evolve.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has made public an unclassified version of its annual report to Congress on the results of its security inspection activities in 2022.

Take note! Registration closes today for the U.S. Department of Energy Conference for Newcomers: Understanding Exports of Advanced Reactor Technologies, scheduled for July 26–27 at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Ill.

Contact Mercedes Trent (mercedes.trent@nnsa.doe.gov) to sign up for the conference. Additional information will follow upon registration.

The future of nuclear power and nuclear science will be informed by the past. But how did “the future” look six decades ago? We’ll check back on the predictions of ANS members in 1965 before assessing the investments in technology, workforce, and licensing needed now.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is issuing for public comment draft guidance on the use of decommissioning trust funds for the disposal of major radioactive components from nuclear power plants that are still in operation.

Ten years ago this month, on June 7, 2013, Southern California Edison (SCE) communicated the decision to permanently shutter the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The decision set in motion the decommissioning of a plant that had provided steady baseload power for the region since 1968 during a period of tremendous growth in the western United States. In the end, issues presented by the planned replacement steam generators that were intended to support future plant operations proved too large of a hurdle, and the plant was forced to retire.

Holtec International has said its patented HI-LIFT crane technology, being installed at the Indian Point-3 nuclear power plant, will speed the defueling of the spent nuclear fuel pool and avoid millions in excess decommissioning costs.

Photo: University of Maryland Radiation Facilities

This year, the nuclear power industry is seeing a renewed mandate to innovate and supply carbon-free energy for a range of applications. These new reactor designs feature new fuel forms, expanded thermodynamic ranges, and different operational paradigms. The trend toward smaller designs is anticipated to dramatically reduce siting requirements and enable applications of nuclear heat more customizable to commercial use. This has many vendors and operators imagining creative ways to optimize reactor economics in an unpredictable energy market.

The existing U.S. nuclear fleet has benefited from experience and research generated in research and test reactors around the country. As our industry reinvests in innovation, it will once again turn to many of the same reactors. Those reactors—and the groups such as the National Organization of Test, Research, and Training Reactors (TRTR) that formed to support them—have their own history of innovation.

Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation (AMS) has been awarded $500,000 from the Department of Energy for a yearlong project to develop an industry blueprint that should reduce outage times and maintenance costs at nuclear power plants. The project is set to start later this year.

To help plan and prepare for new technologies involving artificial intelligence, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has released its Artificial Intelligence Strategic Plan (NUREG-2261) for fiscal years 2023–2027.

The NRC said that it expects license applications that include the use of AI technologies to be submitted to the agency for review and approval within the next few years. The strategic plan is meant to help ensure that NRC staff are prepared to review and evaluate such applications.

In the foreword, the NRC Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research director Raymond Furstenau introduces the strategic plan, writing, “We recognize that interest in AI is growing rapidly in both the public and private sectors. As such, I think [it] is important to lay the groundwork needed to ensure the safe and secure use of AI in NRC-regulated activities.”