US nuclear regulators might let new reactor designs be judged on their own risks

A group representing nuclear power plant owners has asked US nuclear regulators to change how they evaluate reactor safety. They want the rules to consider the actual risks of a design, rather than just following old guidelines written for reactors from the 1960s.

For decades, every new reactor design had to prove its safety using rules designed for the type of reactors the US has used since the 1960s (light-water reactors). This made it slow and expensive to license anything truly different. If regulators adopt this change, companies with genuinely new reactor designs could have them assessed based on their specific risks, potentially speeding up approvals.