ML18221A411

Summary of Public Meeting to Discuss Regulatory Improvements for Advanced Reactors

ML18221A411
Person / Time
Issue date:	08/15/2018
From:	Vechioli L NRC/NRO/DSRA/ARPB
To:	John Segala NRC/NRO/DSRA/ARPB
Vechioli L, NRO/DSRA, 415-6035
Shared Package
ML18213A118	List: ML18213A151 ML18221A411
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Download: ML18221A411 (7)

Text

August 15, 2018 MEMORANDUM TO: John P. Segala, Chief Advanced Reactor and Policy Branch Division of Safety Systems, Risk Assessment and Advanced Reactors Office of New Reactors FROM: Lucieann Vechioli, Project Manager /RA/

Advanced Reactor and Policy Branch Division of Safety Systems, Risk Assessment and Advanced Reactors Office of New Reactors

SUMMARY

OF JULY 26, 2018, PUBLIC MEETING TO DISCUSS REGULATORY IMPROVEMENTS FOR ADVANCED REACTORS On July 26, 2018, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held a Category 2 public meeting with stakeholders, Department of Energy, national laboratories, and Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), to discuss ongoing initiatives within the industry and NRC related to the development and licensing of non-light water reactors (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML18199A176). Enclosure 1 contains a list of meeting attendees and participants who joined via webinar. Enclosure 2 has the meeting agenda. The slides and meeting handouts are available in ADAMS Accession No. ML18213A118.

Mr. William Reckley from the NRC staff reported progress made in several activities related to all six near-term implementation action plans strategies along with the status of some potential early movers and micro-reactors. The staff pointed out the interest to have more discussions about these topics and that priorities will adjust based on input received. Stakeholders expressed interest on having training in other technologies besides the molten salt reactor (MSR) training offered last year. NRC staff provided an update on the emergency preparedness rulemaking for small modular reactors and other new technologies. The next steps in the rulemaking process include making the proposed rulemaking package public to support the upcoming public meeting with the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards that will be held in October 2018.

CONTACT: Lucieann Vechioli, NRO/DSRA 301-415-6035

J. Segala 2 Mr. Reckley also provided status on current and planned work that are supported by Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research and Office of New Reactors contracts. These efforts include initiatives related to fuel performance, severe accident phenomena, fuel qualification, and ASME Section III Division 5.

Mr. Jason Redd from Southern Company provided an update of the Licensing Modernization Project (LMP) guidance document. Mr. Redd provided a summary of the recent activities and milestones such as the NRC Public Workshop that will be held on August 21, 2018. This workshop will be focus in the resolution of previous comments received from NRC and Advisory Committee on Reactors Safeguards (ACRS). The draft guidance document should be provided to ACRS by September 30, 2018. The upcoming dates for industry and public participation opportunities were also discussed.

The MSR technology topic was led by Matthew Lish from Flibe Energy. Flibe Company is working on a liquid-fluoride thorium reactor that is a type of MSR. In this type of reactor, thorium, and uranium fluorides are combined into a salt mixture that is heated to a molten substance, which is then used to fuel the reactor.

Marc Nichol from NEI led the discussion about prioritization of issues considering operation and maintenance. Electric Power Research Institute report can be located at https://www.epri.com/#/pages/product/000000003002007071/?lang=en. The report presents the results of a range of staff functional areas to identify technologies with staffing impact. The project selected, evaluated, and documented 25 technologies that show significant potential to support staff optimization. The ranking process in the report provide a way to focus on which technologies and/or design details that when implemented would substantially reduce the staffing required for evolving small modular reactors plants.

The afternoon discussions focused on natural convection heat removal discussion.

• Jim Kinsey from Idaho National Laboratory led a presentation about regulatory framework for passive heat removal. The presentation summarized the fundamental safety functions for reactor technologies and associated designs.

• The reactor cavity cooling system presentation was led by Mathew Miller from Southern Company. Steam cycle high temperature gas reactor is being developed for a variety of process heat, electricity, and congregation markets. Industry is working with the national laboratories to develop testing and the associated test plans to support design validation.

• Darius Lisowski (via phone) from Argonne National Laboratory led a discussion about natural convection shutdown heat removal test facility (NSTF). The presentation provided a high level status of the NSTF program and its accomplishments such as a 33 month testing campaign duration, 27 conducted tests from which 16 were accepted, and 24 publications since inception.

The meeting ended with a discussion of other topics and future meetings. The date for the next meeting is tentatively scheduled for September 13, 2018. Meeting participants suggested a discussion of fuel qualification and X-Energy expressed their interest in presenting in an upcoming meeting. It was also noted that the frequency of the stakeholders meeting should be maintained every six weeks but not as full day meetings.

J. Segala 3

Enclosures:

1. Meeting attendance

2. Agenda

ML18221A411 *via Email NRO-002 OFFICE NRO/DSRA NRO/DSRA NRO/DSRA NAME LVechioli WReckley JSegala DATE 08/09/18 08/13/18 08/15/18 MEETING ATTENDANCE Advanced Reactors Stakeholder Meeting Nuclear Energy Institute 1201 F. Street NW, Suite 1100 Washington, DC Thursday, July 26, 2018 Name Organization Steven Kline Bechtel Matthew Miller Framatome Amir Afzali Southern Company Hanh Phan NRC Marilyn Kray Exelon Jason Redd Southern Company Brandon Waites Southern Company Milan Stika Flibe Energy Peter Hastings Kairos Power Jackson Breakell Flibe Energy Jeff Merrifield Pillsburg Jim Kinsey DOE/INL Herman Van Antwerpen X-Energy Lucieann Vechioli NRC Ganapati Myneni ADNA Corporation Amy Cubbage NRC Everett Redmond NEI Kati Austgen NEI N.P. Kadambi Self Anne Cottingham NEI Matthew Lish Flibe Energy Jim Gresham Westinghouse Marc Nichol NEI Enclosure 1

Attendance List - Webinar Attendees Name Organization Jana Bergman Curtiss Wright John Bolin GA Rob Burg EPM Marcia Carpentier NRC Linda Dolan GE Dayna Dority NRC Ashley Finan NIA Robert Fitzpatrick NRC George Flanagan ORNL Greg Gibson X-Energy Mark Holbrook INL Rui Hu ANL Darius Lisowski ANL Imtiaz Madni NRC Lisa Matis TETRA TECH Jan Mazza NRC Nicholas McMurray NRC Wayne Moe INL Franco Moi BECHTEL Alex Pavlak self Mike Poore ORNL Bill Reckley NRC Stuart Rubin Numark Assoc.

Makuteswara Srinivasan NRC Martin Stutzke NRC George Tartal NRC Boyce Travis NRC Nanette Valliere NRC Hanry Wagage NRC Staci Wheeler Alpha Tech Research Corp Derek Widmayer NRC Joe Williams NRC Jeff Wood NRC Aaron Wysocki ORNL Alex Huning X-Energy Michael Mayfield self JongSeuk Park self Richard Rogalski self 2

AGENDA Advanced Reactors Stakeholder Meeting Nuclear Energy Institute 1201 F. Street NW, Suite 1100 Washington, DC Thursday, July 26, 2018 TIME TOPIC LEAD 9:00 - Introductions NRC 9:15am 9:15 - Update on NRC activities (ongoing and planned) under All 10:30am current budget allocations 10:30 - Break All 10:45am 10:45 - Licensing modernization - industry guidance and related NRC/LMP/NEI 11:30pm regulatory guide 11:30 - Technology working group or other generic/technology Kirk Sorenson, Flibe 12:00pm specific issues 12:00 - Lunch All 1:00pm 1:00 - Prioritization of issues considering operations and NEI 2:15pm maintenance 2:15 - Break All 2:30pm 2:30 - Natural convection shutdown heat removal systems and ANL/INL/Framatome 4:00pm related licensing issues 4:00 - Policy table discussions and future topics All 4:15pm 4:15 - Other topics and public comments All 4:30pm Enclosure 2