Responding to the Regulatory Safety Challenges for New Reactor Technologies

The paper presents some propositions for responding to the regulatory safety challenges associated with the new family of evolutionary and innovative reactors designs. It first summarize some aspects of the regulatory approach to nuclear reactor safety by the competent Argentine Nuclear Regulatory [ARN]. It then suggest to refresh the current international safety regime being developed under the aegis of the IAEA reinforcing it inter alia by strengthening the Convention of Nuclear Safety by fully applying the concepts for the safety of new reactors imbedded in the Vienna Declaration of Nuclear Safety, reviewing the IAEA safety standards and dissecting its own standards (which are fully applicable to the new designs) from its 'norms' (which are to be revised and tailored to the new designs), and enforcing the use of probabilistic safety criteria, fully coherent and consistent with the universally accepted radiation protection paradigm, all of which provide the safety framework for the new reactor design. Some specific challenges associated to the development of the SMR prototype CAREM, will also be discussed.