Nuclear industry calls for rules change to accommodate new designs

By the OGJ Online Staff

HOUSTON, June 27 � Nuclear industry representatives Wednesday called for new regulations to address licensing of the next generation of nuclear technology and for permanent renewal of a controversial government authorized nuclear insurance program.

Witnesses testifying before the Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee also expressed concern more than 50% of the nuclear fuel being used in US nuclear plants is imported, much of it from Russia. They also questioned the Department of Energy's delays in designating a nuclear waste repository.

Testifying before the subcommittee, Marvin Fertel, senior vice-president, operations, for the Nuclear Energy Institute, said he expected all operating US nuclear plant will seek renewal of their licenses, noting the plants have added the equivalent of 22,000 Mw through more efficient operation in recent years. And Fertel said he expected the industry will seek to add about 50,000 Mw of new capacity between now and 2020.

The NRC has certified three new plant designs and is reviewing more, he said. He called for changes to tax laws to allow quicker depreciation and for reauthorization of the Price-Anderson Act set to expire next year. The law established the system under which nuclear plants are insured.

Industry executives said the law was written to cover plants of 1,000 Mw or more and should be amended to cut premiums to reflect the smaller size of new designs. Linked to together in modules of 100 Mw each, operators should not have to pay the $200 million/unit that would be required under current law, they said.

The nuclear power industry is expected to be insured per incident to a maximum of $9.43 billion, including maximum available primary insurance coverage of $200 million plus maximum available secondary insurance of $9.23 billion.

To account for inflation, representatives of the insurance industry asked the committee to raise the primary premium to $300 million.

Jack Skolds, president of Exelon Nuclear, a unit of Exelon Corp., called for changes to decommissioning fund requirements and smaller safety planning zones to reflect the fact new plants will serve the merchant market and the units will be smaller than existing nuclear facilities. Without regulatory changes, including lower applicant review charges, new technology such as pebble bed reactors will be uneconomic, Skold said.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Richard Meserve said the NRC is currently "grappling" with the question of whether new technology requires new rules and, if so, whether the rules will require legislation or can be put in place administratively.

In the case of helium-cooled reactors, Meserve said the agency would need "to make changes to the regulatory system that would be the counterpart to light water reactors. We are looking at that now."

Noting concerns that 25% of the agency's technical staff is eligible for retirement, Merserve said the NRC is reviewing skills needed to fill the gap as its workload increases. "I think there will be challenges to the NRC, DOE [Department of Energy], and industry," he said.