Pathways and frameworks for the licensing and regulation of advanced nuclear reactors in the United States

Nuclear regulation lies at the nexus of public policy, business, and engineering. While current regulatory processes have become fairly effective for the regulation of existing nuclear power plants, the use of prescriptive technology-specific requirements may present a challenge for the licensing and deployment of advanced nuclear power plants. These advanced nuclear power plants can utilize passive systems, new fuel forms or coolants, or other new design features to accomplish their safety and security functions. Advanced reactors may not comply with existing requirements for nuclear power plant licensing due to their departure from the design philosophies and reactor technologies used in existing nuclear power plants. The challenge of licensing advanced nuclear power plants using existing regulatory requirements could increase the time and costs associated with licensing new plants, and jeopardize the commercial viability of the industry.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• White, Robert Patrick.

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jacopo Buongiorno.

• Nuclear Science and Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121714

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/121714