Part 53 aims to create a clear licensing path for advanced reactors

The Breakthrough Institute, a California-based environmental research center, published its comments on Part 53 in late February, accompanied by a March 6 article titled “Making Part 53 Work for Advanced Reactors.” The article makes the case that the draft rules are still too rigid.

“A system of rules that favors older technologies is not what the industry needs, and not what Congress or the NRC itself wants. To achieve that, the rule should move past a narrow metric of risk and refocus on an integrated view of safety,” the article states.

The new rules must be “drafted in a way that makes their use practical, developers will continue using old, inappropriate rules, wasting both their time and the NRC’s with dozens of requests for exemptions. If Part 53 goes into effect, but it doesn’t have a usable provision for an applicant to switch from the older system, then Part 53 will not come near achieving its potential,” the article continues.

Background: The new rule is a response to two pieces of bipartisan federal legislation: the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA) and the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act.

The NRC has spent five years developing Part 53—also known as the Risk-Informed, Technology-Inclusive Regulatory Framework for Advanced Reactors. The rule, which by law must take its final form before the end of 2027, is intended to provide tools the NRC staff could use to review and license any nuclear plant.

“The rule is supposed to be technology neutral and applicable to all the various emerging technologies. The change is necessary, partly because the new reactor designs vary widely,” according to the Breakthrough Institute article. “This avenue is intended to be more appropriate for emerging technologies than the existing regulatory structures, which assume the use of the light water technologies that have dominated for the last 60 years.”

Draft regulatory analysis by the NRC indicates that the net averted costs to the industry and the agency of just one applicant using the new 10 CFR Part 53 rule could range from $53.6 million to $68.2 million.

The commission published its latest draft of Part 53 this past October and took comments on the document through February 28.

A closer look: Over the past four months, the Breakthrough Institute has held workshops with 15 organizations to help generate and reach consensus comments on the Part 53 proposal. The institute submitted a 40-page “stakeholder consensus” report to the NRC on February 24, which incorporates feedback from nongovernmental organizations, national laboratories, consultants, technology developers, government agencies, and industry groups.

“The successful deployment of advanced nuclear technologies depends on a regulatory framework that is risk-informed, performance-based, and technology-inclusive,” the Breakthrough Institute shared on its website February 26. “While Part 53 represents an important step toward modernizing reactor licensing, this stakeholder consensus has highlighted areas where improvements are necessary to ensure clarity, efficiency, and effectiveness in implementation.”