25 Sep (NucNet): US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chairman Dale Klein has called for increased cooperation in pursuing new reactors as part of a broader global regulatory framework for the entire nuclear fuel cycle.
Nations interested in building new nuclear plants must also build more robust international partnerships to guide their design, construction and operation… beginning with existing commonalities, but with an eye to an international framework for all stages of the fuel cycle,” Mr Klein said.
Mr Klein told international regulators at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s general conference in Vienna, Austria, that they have “an unprecedented opportunity to influence the safety and security of new and innovative reactors and other fuel-cycle facilities.”
For nations considering building new nuclear plants, “the regulatory infrastructure cannot be established too soon,” Mr Klein said.
Under the Multinational Design Evaluation Programme, the US is already working with nine other nations to develop a common regulatory approach.
Such an approach would add safety benefits and reduce the additional cost and effort required to develop several designs to satisfy varying national standards.
“With advanced nuclear reactors and facilities, we have the opportunity to work collaboratively right from the beginning. We can avoid the need to ‘harmonise’ disparate programmes if we act in concert now,” Mr Klein said.
“Although each of us will retain our own cultures and political systems, I believe that we can construct a set of mutually acceptable safety standards.”
>>Related reports in the NucNet database (available to subscribers)
GNEP Triples In Size To 16 Members (News No. 214, 18 September 2007)
Ageing Workforce Is Potential Crisis, Says NRC Chairman (World Nuclear Review No. 38, 21 September 2007)
