New American and Canadian nuclear reactor designs are undergoing technical review and seeking certification by both countries’ regulatory agencies, with one set to be the first subjected to a joint U.S./Canadian technical assessment of reactor technologies under a binational cooperation agreement reached in August.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) agreed to collaborate on technical reviews of advanced reactor and small modular reactor technologies. Eight vendors now are in CNSC design review, including six that are active and two pending by year-end.

据这家总部位于安大略省的公司称，首先可能是陆地能源的先进的融化盐反应堆。

It employs Generation IV molten-salt technology with a power output of 195 MWe and is currently under separate regulatory review in both Canada and the U.S. CNSC has been receiving vendor submissions for Phase 2 of the design review since December 2018, with NRC involved in pre-licensing review since February, supported by U.S. Energy Dept. grant funding.

NuScale Power LLC’s small modular reactor is the American entry. The firm, majority owned by Fluor Corp., announced on Dec. 12 that its Generation III+ light-water integral SMR design, which has been in NRC certification review since late 2016, was approved to begin Phases 5 and 6, with completion expected by September 2020.

在联邦公报上发布批准后，它将在市售。“我们正在美国，罗马尼亚和约旦积极营销，” Nuscale Power首席战略官克里斯·科尔伯特（Chris Colbert）指出。CNSC表示，Nuscale的整体加压水反应堆将于2019年底开始2阶段的审查。它不太可能接受联合审查。

NuScale says the global market for SMRs could reach $100 billion by 2035, according to a report by Paris-based Nuclear Energy Authority.

在三英里岛，切尔诺贝利和福岛的灾难性事故之后，一些西方国家的核发电的支持在一些西方国家消失了。但是随着气候变化的关注，它的无碳一代获得了青睐。

Reactor technologies have advanced through Generation III+ and now Generation IV with scalable small modular designs and improvements in operational safety. A variety of technology proposals featuring reactors from 3 MWe to 300 MWe are lining up for regulatory approval.

Each new design must run a regulatory gauntlet before approval. In Canada, CNSC approval comes in stages of review; in the U.S., NRC grants approval after completing review of the entire design. Having a joint technical review would streamline the process by coordinating and sharing information between Canadian and U.S. technical reviews.

When implemented, the proposed joint review “will help the two agencies understand the similarities of their individual reviews," says Marcus Nichol, director of new reactor deployment at the Nuclear Energy Institute. “This has the potential to reduce review times in one country for designs that have already been approved by the other.”

陆地能量的反应堆使用的是液体燃料 - 稳定的熔融盐，而不是传统反应堆的固体燃料。熔融盐反应堆是IV代国际论坛进行进一步研发的六种设计之一。“设计的关键要素是，它使用了可更换的七年反应堆核心，该核心解决了过去通常被认为是熔融盐反应堆发育的材料寿命挑战，”陆地能源发言人贾里特·亚当斯（Jarret Adams）说。该论坛说，反应堆也“对放射性核废料的最小化有很大的希望”。

CNSC总裁Rumina Velshi在11月在华盛顿特区举行的国际核能合作全球部长级会议上说：“我从工作人员那里得到的早期反馈是两家机构之间非常紧密的一致性。”

她补充说，“有承诺优化最大程度地减少努力重复的机会，并使监管审查减少繁重，更可预测的结果和更高的安全性。”这些机构同意参考条款，以帮助指导他们的工作，并讨论了为审查小型核反应堆许可申请的共同指南。