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Atomic Insights

Atomic energy technology, politics, and perceptions from a nuclear energy insider who served as a US nuclear submarine engineer officer

Nuclear regulations

Terrestrial Energy Announces Plans To License Their Integral Molten Reactor In The U.S.

January 25, 2017 By Rod Adams 15 Comments

Yesterday, Terrestrial Energy USA (TEUSA) informed the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that they planned to begin pre-license application discussions with a goal of being ready to file a design certification application no later than Oct 2019. Here is a brief video that provides an overview of Terrestrial Energy‘s Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSRTM TEUSA […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, Liquid Fuel Reactors, Nuclear regulations, Reactors, Small Nuclear Power Plants, Smaller reactors

NRC Vision And Strategy For Licensing Advanced Reactors Needs Improvement

January 24, 2017 By Rod Adams 9 Comments

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published its vision and strategy for preparing to review applications for permission to begin building reactors that do not use light water as the coolant. Policy makers who are interested in ensuring that American reactor developers have the opportunity to lead in the nascent – but potentially very lucrative field – of […]

Filed Under: Advanced Atomic Technologies, New Nuclear, NRC, Nuclear regulations

What does the “open phase condition” petition mean for US nuclear plants?

March 14, 2016 By Rod Adams 26 Comments

On March 1, 2016, Reuters published an article titled U.S. NRC engineers urge fix for nuclear power stations. Here is how the article seized my attention. A group of engineers within the U.S. nuclear power regulator is concerned that a design flaw in nearly all U.S. nuclear plants could endanger emergency core cooling systems. The […]

Filed Under: NRC, Nuclear regulations

Proposal: Fund NRC by a fee on each kw-hr generated by nuclear energy

February 28, 2016 By Rod Adams 29 Comments

Initial conditions: NRC is an independent safety regulator working for the US public Its services mainly benefit customers that in electricity service areas that include nuclear power plants as suppliers Customers will benefit by cost efficient, effective safety regulations that enable continuous improvement in plant operations and performance. Customers will benefit by cost efficient, effective […]

Filed Under: NRC, Nuclear regulations

NRC needs an independent budget process to match its independent mandate

February 27, 2016 By Rod Adams 11 Comments

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent regulatory agency whose focus is the safe use of radiation and radioactive materials. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard from regulators, commissioners, and elected officials that the agency must make its safety decisions without regard to their cost implications. However, as any teenager, project […]

Filed Under: Atomic politics, NRC, Nuclear regulations

Congressmen Wanted to Control Gasoline (Parable about atomic power)

February 23, 2016 By Rod Adams 11 Comments

On April 17, 1958 the Brownsville (TX) Herald published an editorial titled “Congressmen Wanted to Control Gasoline.” It was aimed at actions by the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy and the Atomic Energy Commission to maintain nearly total control of all aspects of atomic power generation. As described by Snopes, excerpts from this ancient editorial […]

Filed Under: Atomic history, Atomic politics, Nuclear regulations

Licensing demonstration reactors in the United States

September 8, 2015 By Rod Adams 73 Comments

During the joint DOE-NRC workshop on advanced non-light water reactors held last week (Sep 1-2, 2015), John Adams of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation gave a presentation on reactor license classification terminology. It made me squirm in my chair with the desire to interrupt. Probably because he has read and […]

Filed Under: Atomic history, Atomic politics, New Nuclear, NRC, Nuclear regulations

EPA’s Proposed ISR Rule

April 6, 2015 By Guest Author

By Andrea Jennetta During a March 16, 2015, meeting of the National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP), FCW columnist (and Atomic Insights owner/blogger) Rod Adams listened to, challenged and followed up with Jonathan Edwards, Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Radiation Protection Division. Edwards gave a talk entitled “Federal Directions in Radiation Regulations: […]

Filed Under: Nuclear Fuel Cycle, Nuclear regulations, Uranium mining

Atomic Show #237 – Dave Lochbaum, UCS

April 3, 2015 By Rod Adams

On March 26, 2015, Cleveland.com published a story titled Perry refuels its nuclear reactor, critics concerned about storage (photos). The story described how a group of activists had tried to generate concerns and actions in response to First Energy’s decision to improve the Perry plant by adopting fuel designed to provide more energy per fuel […]

Filed Under: Antinuclear activist, Nuclear Performance, Nuclear regulations, Podcast

Time to stop consuming precious resources to harmonize occupational dose limits

March 30, 2015 By Rod Adams

Pressure groups and interested individuals have been striving for more than two decades to force the U. S. to reduce its occupational worker radiation protection limit from 50 mSv/year to 20 mSv/year. The primary justification for this effort is that in 1991 the International Commission on Radiation Protection (ICRP) issued publication 60 and provided their […]

Filed Under: Atomic politics, Health Effects, LNT, Nuclear regulations

NRC RIC 2015 – Day one observations

March 12, 2015 By Rod Adams

On March 10, 2015, I attended my first ever Regulatory Information Conference (RIC), which is an annual event hosted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I had heard from various associates that everyone who is anyone in the nuclear industry should plan to go to the RIC whenever possible. They were right. First of all, the […]

Filed Under: Atomic politics, Conferences, Natural Gas, New Nuclear, Nuclear regulations

NRC FY2016 budget hearing – Sen Alexander and Sen Feinstein

March 6, 2015 By Rod Adams

On March 4, 2015, the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development held a hearing about the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s FY2016 budget. The video archive is available for review. The only senators from the subcommittee who took part in the hearing were Sen Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Sen Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) with an invited […]

Filed Under: Atomic politics, Economics, Nuclear regulations, Politics of Nuclear Energy

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