For the NRC’s New Reactor Program, 2011 was a year of significant progress. By year’s end, we had completed reviews of the first combined license application, one design certification and two design certification amendments. We also started on the first design certification renewal review.
In addition, we began addressing substantial policy issues related to the licensing of advanced reactors, while markedly refining the processes for overseeing construction acitivities, such as those underway at Georgia’s Vogtle nuclear power plant.
You can find comprehensive information on these developments and many others in the just-published second Office of New Reactors (NRO) annual review. The publication, “2011 New Reactor Program,” makes finding timely and accurate information on the agency’s new reactor activities easy and fast.
The review is written in plain language and covers NRO’s three main areas of focus: new reactor licensing, construction oversight and the Advanced Reactor Program. In addition, the publication features an “International Cooperation” section, as well as an “Overview” summary and “A Look Ahead” write-up. It concludes with “At a Glance,” an organizational summary of divisions within the office, their branches and responsibilities.
The 40-page review is available on the agency’s public web site at: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/brochures/br0476/br0476.pdf .
Requests for print copies can be sent to: opa.resource@nrc.gov .
Bob Jasinski Senior New Reactors Communications Specialist
U.S. NRC Blog 
Nuclear power should be part of the solution for a greener future. If waste is properly managed, it’ll play a vital role in meeting our future energy demands.
Very interesting. I wonder where nuclear energy is heading and the impact it’ll have on foreign relations for the US.
I found two key issues to rise regarding the severe accident phenomena.
1. NRC is obsessed with post fuel damage phenomena and a lack of effort to avoid the damage to the fuel is evident.
2. The operators are not dealt with the deserved respect and do not have necessary means for interfering with the progression of a severe accident.
It is necessary to revise the regulatory environment and correct it on the knowledge basis, including the zirconium firestorm in the steam as the leading severe accident phenomenon.
Doing that will require the addition of a vent-depressurization line from the top of reactor of PWR type and the rerouting to the atmosphere of an alternate relief line from the turbine driven emergency cooling pumps of BWR reactors, which are left to be operated without any power source directly by the operators. It will add a shortcut pathway for energy release directly from the reactor into the atmosphere, operated by the operators in case of a severe accident. With sufficient gravity (staged pre-charged) water reserves it will avoid the zirconium firestorm in the core and the fuel damage.