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South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission Establishes Pre-Review System for SMRs to Accelerate Licensing

Recently, South Korea's Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) officially launched a preliminary review system for small modular reactors (SMRs). This pre-licensing channel, established as new legislation, stems from the previously passed amendment to the Nuclear Safety Act and is designed to build a procedural bridge between early-stage reactor design and the highly rigorous formal licensing stage, thereby comprehensively streamlining the commercialization development process for SMRs. The preliminary review will be conducted before the submission of a formal construction permit application, focusing on assessing whether various design concepts and technical blueprints can pass final safety justification, and identifying potential technical blind spots at an early stage. By...

2026-11-14

U.S. House of Representatives Passes Amendment to Spent Fuel Reprocessing Licensing

Recently, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed, by a vote of 397 to 2, the revised text of H.R. 3978, the Nuclear Fuel Recycling Act (Nuclear REFUEL Act). The bill proposes major adjustments to the definition of production facility in the U.S. Atomic Energy Act of 1954, thereby clarifying the regulatory classification of specific spent fuel reprocessing equipment and devices. According to the revised text, whether a process separates plutonium from other transuranic elements constitutes the core condition for classification. The proposed provisions explicitly stipulate that if the relevant equipment or devices are capable of reprocessing spent fuel and the process they employ...

2026-11-10

U.S. NRC Expedites Review of License Amendment for Palisades Nuclear Plant Fuel Loading Tilt Incident: Advancing Vanguard SMR Construction Permit Review in Parallel

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is reviewing an emergency operating license amendment request (LAR) submitted by Holtec International. The request was triggered by a nuclear fuel loading tilt incident at the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant (Palisades NPP) in Covert, Michigan, during its restart process, which has resulted in the temporary suspension of some on-site restart recovery operations. According to the application documents publicly available in the NRC's public records system, fuel assembly number DD41 tilted after being released by the fuel handling machine. The lower nozzle of the assembly remains in the core grid position H-1, but the upper portion forms an approximately 30-degree tilt angle with the core plate...

2026-10-09

South Korea's National Assembly Passes Amendments on Radiation Disaster Response, Strengthening the Treatment System for Radiation Victims

The South Korean National Assembly held a plenary session on the 20th and passed two livelihood bills proposed by Rep. Yoon Jun-byeong, a member of the Parliamentary Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs and Fisheries Committee. The bills concern the establishment of a radiation disaster response system and adjustments to the support system for surviving family members of national meritorious persons. Under the amendments passed, the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute will be granted the qualification to operate as a specialized hospital for treating radiation victims. This arrangement aims to further improve the national medical safety net, enabling industrial radiation workers and victims of accidental radiation incidents to receive faster and more systematic treatment and rehabilitation support. Meanwhile, another amendment was also passed. This amendment, in accordance with the Constitutional Court's ruling of nonconformity, abolishes the provision that prioritized age as the sole criterion in the payment of survivor benefits to families of national meritorious persons of the same rank. After the relevant institutional adjustment, greater emphasis will be placed on safeguarding the rights of low-income households to reduce blind spots in welfare support.

2026-08-21

South Korea Approves License Amendment for Gyeongju Low- and Intermediate-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Facility

The Nuclear Safety and Security Commission (NSSC) of South Korea announced on August 21 that it held its 12th meeting of 2026 in written form on August 20, reviewing and approving the license amendment for the construction and operation of the near-surface disposal facility for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste operated by the Korea Radioactive Waste Agency (KORAD). The near-surface disposal facility is located in Munmu-daewang-myeon, Gyeongju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and is the second-phase project of the Gyeongju low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste disposal facility. Near-surface disposal refers to the disposal of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste in near-surface facilities, rather than in deep underground caverns. The facility completed its pre-operational inspection in March this year. This license amendment is primarily intended to update the safety analysis report...

2026-08-21

Czech Republic Proposes Amendments to Low-Carbon Act, Key Dukovany Nuclear Contracts May Exit Public Registry

The Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade recently published a draft amendment to the Low-Carbon Act, proposing adjustments to the Act on Measures for the Transition to Low-Carbon Energy and related energy laws and contract registration regulations. On the surface, this legislative change is primarily aimed at unifying the support mechanisms, contract signing procedures, and compensation settlement rules for new nuclear power projects. However, the most notable change is that certain key contracts involving the construction and financial support of nuclear power units may no longer be required to be disclosed in the public contract registration system. The draft proposes the "compensation mechanism contract" as the basic model for supporting new nuclear projects, with a nature similar to a bilateral contract for difference—providing compensation when market electricity prices fall below agreed levels, and requiring repayment or settlement when prices exceed agreed levels.

2026-08-13

Chugoku Electric Power Submits Third Amendment to Reactor Installation Change Permit Application for Shimane Nuclear Power Plant Unit 3 to Regulatory Authority

Chugoku Electric Power Co., Inc. announced on July 29 that it had submitted the third amendment to the reactor installation change permit application for Unit 3 of the Shimane Nuclear Power Plant to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) on the same day. The company stated that this amendment adjusts the application content for related equipment at the plant based on previous review findings. This includes reclassifying certain equipment already installed for Unit 2, such as the emergency response center, for shared use between Unit 2 and Unit 3. According to reports, Chugoku Electric Power had previously submitted two amendments to the reactor installation change permit application for Unit 3 of the Shimane Nuclear Power Plant, on December 22, 2021, and June 29, 2022, respectively.

2026-07-29