From an article in the Washington post (see link below). The Trump administration is really pushing to get new nuclear plants built, and even some with new technology. I think some of the new technology are very interesting and may be actually safer in ways, to the traditional boiling water reactor plants. The boiling water reactor plants have been the main type of Nuclear plant, in the USA and elsewhere, and have had incidents of near melt-downs and other safety risks or events.
Some of the new technologies may avoid those specific issues, which is welcome, but they do have other hazards that are real and dangerous. These hazards do need new design and engineering controls to keep the nuclear plants safe. This has been done in the past. It certainly could be done with the new technology plants. Or they may reach a design point where it is determined that the safety cannot be managed or mitigated well, and those designs may not go forward. That’s a bit of how the process is with Nuclear Engineering and the Nuclear Regulators.
The issue pointed out in the Washington Post article is that some of the regulations and degree of design review, are being scaled back. I will use the example of this. The standard design regulation had been that the plants should be designed to reduce any radiation leaks to the lowest achievable levels with the technologies we have currently. This is a standard that is used on some air/water quality requirements in the chemical industry as well. Reduce the pollution to the lowest level that current technology can achieve. It is a solid practice but obviously this will not always be cheap or low cost. It does give the public the best air or water quality you can achieve from those chemical plants.
That most achievable practice had been used by Nuclear Regulators for nuclear plant design, for keeping the radiation and radiation leaks to the lowest achievable. This administration is relaxing that rule, among others, for current nuclear power plant design.
Of course the concern is, what boundaries are there on that nuclear radiation? Is it going to be enough to protect the workers and the public around those plants? It’s not clear from the article what the new standards are for that. But the obvious concerns is this, are they good enough?
In a big rush to roll out nuclear technology, let us have better communication to the public on what safety risks we have with the new technologies. Let’s discuss with the public what typical risk scenarios look like.
Some of the design criteria for nuclear plants is not public knowledge due to security and other concerns. The science of Nuclear Engineering is also something the average citizen would not understand to great depths as well. But we should be able to communicate what risks we will see or expect.
Also, in a big push for new nuclear technologies, let’s do the real science and the real work, to deliver technology that’s feasible, maintainable, and generally safe.
Here’s a link to the article in the Washington Post
Federal nuclear agency moves to relax radiation exposure rules – The Washington Post
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