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US eases standards for resident protection zones
“Early establishment of regulations, SMR companies’ growth”
As nuclear power is receiving renewed attention worldwide, the United States is working on improving regulations to take the lead in the related market. In particular, it is focusing on easing regulations related to small modular reactors (SMRs), which are called “mini nuclear power plants” and have high growth potential. In the Korean nuclear power industry, there are also claims that a flexible approach is needed instead of the same regulations as for large nuclear power plants.
According to the nuclear power industry on the 22nd, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) newly included SMR-related content when establishing the ‘Performance-Based Emergency Preparedness Regulation Guidelines’ in December of last year. The key content is to allow the SMR’s Radiation Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) to be narrowed. The EPZ is an area established to prepare resident protection measures such as shelters in preparation for a radiation leak accident at a nuclear power plant. The wider the EPZ, the more related costs and time are required.
The EPZ of a large nuclear power plant in the United States is set to a radius of 16km from the reactor. However, this guideline allows for a separate EPZ for SMRs. Since SMRs differ from large nuclear power plants in terms of cost and economic efficiency, the regulations have been relaxed to enable SMRs to be competitive. The EPZ of SMRs can now be reduced to a radius of 200-300m.
This is the result of discussions on the definition and licensing of SMRs starting in the mid-2010s, 10 years ago. A domestic nuclear power plant official explained, “Nuclear power plants are directly related to safety, so it is important for regulatory authorities to establish safety standards,” and “This is the reason why SMR companies are thriving in the U.S., which set out to establish standards early.”
On the other hand, Korea has not established a separate system related to SMR. In Korea, the EPZ of large nuclear power plants is set to a radius of 30km according to the Protection and Radiation Disaster Prevention Measures Act of Nuclear Facilities, etc. SMRs have no regulations and must follow the standards of large nuclear power plants. There are criticisms that a wider EPZ would lead to higher costs and could hinder the activation of SMRs.
Lim Chae-young, head of the Nuclear Promotion Strategy Division at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, said, “If the current regulations are followed, there may be cases where SMRs cannot be built,” and “Korea should also be able to lower existing regulations if safety is secured.”
Reporter Byun Jong-guk [email protected]
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2024-09-23 01:57:34