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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Latest News
DOE-NE’s newest fuel consortium includes defense from antitrust laws
The Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy is setting up a nuclear fuel Defense Production Act Consortium that will seek voluntary agreements with interested companies “to increase fuel availability, provide more access to reliable power, and end America’s reliance on foreign sources of enriched uranium and critical materials needed to power the nation’s nuclear renaissance.” According to an August 22 DOE press release, the plan invokes the Defense Production Act (DPA) to give consortium members “defense from antitrust laws when certain criteria are met” and “allow industry consultation to develop plans of action.” DOE-NE is looking for interested companies to join the consortium ahead of its first meeting, scheduled for October 14.
Luis Betancourt, Dinesh Taneja (NRC)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 1454-1462
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) instrumentation and controls (I&C) regulatory infrastructure, established and supplemented over the decades, has addressed many safety concerns and issues as they arise, using the best information and techniques available at the time. As a result, the licensing process for new highly integrated I&C systems and digital upgrades of existing I&C systems has become prescriptive, cumbersome, and thereby resource/time-intensive. In creating a more efficient licensing process for small modular reactors (SMRs), the NRC staff implemented an enhanced safety-focused review approach for the NuScale Power LLC, (NuScale) SMR design. This approach has been successful in the efficient and effective review of the NuScale SMR I&C design. The restructured, safety-focused approach in Chapter 7 of the Design-Specific Review Standard (DSRS) for the NuScale SMR design [1] is a significant step forward for licensing of any future new and advanced reactor applications. Yet, the staff has learned additional insights and lessons that are important to be captured and addressed in order for the agency to be ready for future new light water or advanced non-light water reactor licensing applications. As such, the NRC staff has embarked upon a new initiative to create a performance-based/risk-informed and technology-neutral guidance for future new and advanced reactor design reviews. This paper presents the NRC staff’s initiative to modernize the NRC’s I&C regulatory infrastructure for the efficient and effective licensing of future I&C designs that account for lessons learned and ever changing I&C technologies.