WASHINGTON (WV News) — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved an emergency planning rule for small, advanced nuclear reactors — a step stakeholders say was needed to foster the development of this emerging form of energy generation.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, testified during a public meeting of the NRC regarding the proposed rule.
“The United States can and should lead a nuclear energy future. That means reestablishing America’s undisputed nuclear energy leadership, which is why I led the calls for the commission to approve this important rule,” Capito said. “I applaud the NRC staff and the commissioners for developing and approving this risk-informed rule to help enable the safe use of advanced nuclear technologies.”
Capito asked the NRC to continue developing additional safeguards for the deployment of advanced reactors.
“I urge the commission to continue supporting safety rules to facilitate the deployment of smaller, safer nuclear reactors, including the development of a usable ‘Part 53’ regulatory framework for advanced reactors,” she said.
In March, Capito joined a group of four other senators who wrote a letter urging the NRC to approve the emergency planning rule.
“Nuclear energy is a clean and reliable source of energy that has been used to safely power our nation’s homes and businesses for decades,” the letter reads. “Advanced nuclear reactors can provide reliable, emission-free electricity with smaller, safer and affordable new reactor designs.”
During the recent special session of the Legislature, a bill that would have made the West Virginia an agreement state with the NCR was passed in the House of Delegates. The bill, which was requested by Gov. Jim Justice, was sent to the state Senate but was not introduced.
An agreement state is one that has signed an accord with the NRC authorizing the state to regulate certain uses of radioactive materials within its borders.
In 2022, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 4, which repealed the state’s 1997 nuclear power ban.
In a letter to the clerk of the Senate announcing he had signed SB 4 into law, Justice said any development or placement of nuclear facilities in the state “must be done thoroughly and, above all, safely.”
“I call upon our Legislature to continue to research and monitor nuclear initiatives around the nation to ensure appropriate regulatory or safety measures are in place as new technologies are developed and implemented,” he said.
The majority of nuclear power plants currently operating are large, have light-water reactors and usually have around a gigawatt of electrical output, Ahn said.
“That’s just been the predominant technology for the nuclear industry for the past several decades,” he said. “(Now) you have an emerging group of innovative designs that have come out in the last decade or so.”
These designs encompass various reactor types, most of which were initially developed in U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratories and Technology Centers.
“As you’ve had advances in materials and other technological fronts, they’ve become more viable for more commercial deployment,” Ahn said.
Most of these designs are for facilities designed to have a much smaller electrical output — 100 to 300 megawatts or less.
“That itself presents a number of benefits because you don’t have the massive upfront capital cost that you have with large reactors in the order of billions and billions of dollars,” Ahn said.
“Basically what having a smaller design allows you to do is take away some of the uncertainty on the construction side. You can manufacturer more of the module in a factory setting, and that allows you to control the process and ... really crank these out and mass manufacture them,” he said.
Advanced nuclear facilities also usually have more “passive safety” features incorporated into their designs compared to older facilities, Ahn said.
“It’s something that can bolster public confidence and public perception about the technology — that there are these advances on the safety side,” he said.
The facilities can serve other purposes besides just generating electricity, Ahn said.
“... Using these reactors for industrial heat applications, desalinating water, producing hydrogen — which could be a good rule source for transportation or for industry,” he said. “There is a flexibility of use cases that a lot of these new technologies can present.”
Former coal plants can be ideal locations for advanced nuclear facilities, Ahn said.
“What makes it so attractive is just the existing infrastructure — there’s power lines and transmission lines already there so you don’t have to build new transmission to the grid, and with coal plants, you’ll have the presence of cooling water, which all advanced nuclear plants will need to a certain degree,” he said.
According to information from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, coal-fired electric power plants accounted for 91% of West Virginia’s total electricity net generation in 2021. Renewable energy resources — primarily hydroelectric power and wind energy — contributed 5% and natural gas provided more than 4%.