Essential infrastructure: national nuclear regulation.

In order for nuclear power to expand to many countries that do not currently have it, it will be essential for these countries to have laws, regulations, guidance and organizations that can license or permit nuclear power plants and support nuclear facilities, ensure compliance by inspection, and enforce nuclear regulations. The viability of nuclear power worldwide depends on an extremely high level of safety everywhere, and compliance with a number of international treaties is required before supplier nations will provide the material, both hardware and software, to build and operate nuclear power plants. While infrastructure support can be obtained from the IAEA and other countries, an essential core of expertise must exist in the country seeking to establish domestic nuclear power generation. While some reliance can be placed on the safety reviews of standard reactor designs by the nuclear regulators in supplier nations, the certification of fuel design, the quality of instruments, and the matching of a new reactor to a proposed site in the importing nation will require site-specific reviews. National arrangements are also needed for emergency preparedness, environmental protection, fuel transportation and the storage, transportation and disposal of radioactive waste. If foreign contractors and consultants are engaged to perform much of the technical work for the regulatory body(s) that has to be performed by the importing nation, that nation must have a core cadre of technically knowledgeable regulators and an organization to provide management and oversight of the contractors and consultants. Consistency in national nuclear regulations, the deployment of standardized nuclear power plant designs and standardized supporting material infrastructure can promote the safe and secure worldwide growth in nuclear power.

Current status of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulatory efforts controlling the disposition of solid materials.

Current efforts of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (U.S. NRC) to develop rules for the disposition of low-activity solid materials and the outcome of U.S. NRC rulemaking activities in this area since the late 1990's are described. International efforts on the disposition of low-activity solid materials and future plans of the U.S. NRC on this subject are also described.