Conventional prescriptive regulatory approaches to nuclear safety, while effective in managing the current light-water reactor fleet, fail to adequately regard and consider the innovative capabilities of next-generation advanced reactor designs. Adoption of a risk-informed, performance-based framework to nuclear regulatory activities, as opposed to adherence to traditional regulatory paradigms, may be a critical step towards unleashing

Although nuclear power plant construction continues at an active pace worldwide, Westinghouse's declaration of bankruptcy is perhaps the latest indicator of the health of the U.S. nuclear industry and its considerable challenges. While China and Russia maintain vigorous new build programs both domestically and internationally, current reactor construction projects in the U.S. have suddenly been

June 23, 2017 Nuclear power plays an indispensable role in limiting, or perhaps even reducing, the costs of transitioning towards a clean, low-emissions energy system. Without nuclear, achieving zero or reduced emissions in the energy sector becomes more costly. Moreover, the cost efficiency potential of advanced nuclear designs may actually reduce the costs of power

The molten salt reactor (MSR) is a Generation IV reactor design that has received renewed interest in recent years from a number of advanced nuclear firms and developers in North America. MSR technology was extensively researched in the 1960s by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), with the research work culminating in the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment