United States and Canada Cooperation on Advanced Reactor Technologies – Progress and Challenges

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) have embarked on a first of a kind effort to collaboratively perform safety reviews of advanced reactor and small modular reactor designs that are expected to be constructed in both countries. The collaboration was formalized in a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) in 2019. The goal in forming this MOC was to further strengthen the NRC and CNSC commitment to share best practices and experience in reviewing advanced reactor and SMR technology designs. Under the terms of this MOC, CNSC and NRC may leverage each other's experiences, regulatory information and results when conducting technology assessments for the purposes of feedback to vendors or making recommendations for regulatory decisions. The NRC and CNSC have realized tangible benefits from this initiative in the form of joint products that can be utilized by each regulator in its licensing decisions. The collaborative reviews that have been performed under the MOC demonstrate that the NRC and CNSC can successfully cooperate on specific technical topics and provide valuable lessons learned to continue to refine and enhance regulatory reviews for furthering advanced reactor technologies.