Atlantic Council - THE GLOBAL FUTURE OF NUCLEAR ENERGY - by Matt Bowen

The burning of fos- nations try to raise quality-of-life metrics.5 sil fuels is the largest contributor to the emission of green- house gases and despite the risks entailed with higher con- Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sparked a centrations of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere, global energy crisis, disrupted energy relationships, and in the world is continuing to drive. [...] If advanced ture.” In the end, NuScale submitted a document to the NRC reactors are deployed for non-electricity purposes, during pre-application interactions that identified a number of this will be a break from the past in how reactors have typ- gaps to be resolved to enhance the probability of an efficient ically been used —at least in some countries, such as the and favorable review of the des. [...] ation to increase collaboration on technical review of SMRs In December 2021, Ontario Power Generation selected the and advanced reactor technologies.60 The terms of the mem- BWRX-300 for the new Darlington nuclear site.57 In the United orandum allow the NRC and CNSC to consider each other’s States, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced in experiences and regulatory information when perfo. [...] TVA has said that it is aiming for a construction license operation in the 2030s.68 Japanese investment is supporting application to be submitted to the NRC in 2023 or 2024.64 the development of both the GE-Hitachi BWRX-300 and the In March 2023, the CNSC completed phases 1 and 2 of the NuScale VOYGR designs, which could potentially be part of Canadian pre-licensing review, where no fundamental ba. [...] Following the 2011 earthquake/tsunami ers to the licensing were identified.65 and the resulting accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, Japan’s government moved to separate the function of In addition to the work related to the BWRX-300, the NRC promotion and regulation of nuclear energy, and created the and CNSC have also issued joint reports on other nuclear Nuclear Regulation Authority i.