September-October 2018 NPJ

Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2018 NuclearPlantJournal.com 25 security value to the United States of a strong domestic civil nuclear industry. Whether that’s having the world’s safest, most efficient and largest operating fleet, or bringing the best nuclear technologies to market, having a strong civil industry allows the US to maintain a global leadership role in nuclear technology, and that pays dividends on many fronts. Certainly, when US firms sell nuclear products and services overseas, that results in job creation and balance of trade benefits to the US. But there are also the long-term relationships that the US builds and the long-term influence we gain by winning nuclear tenders in global markets. That’s part of the reason you’ve seen a great deal of support for developing a next generation of nuclear technologies, be that advanced fuels for today’s reactors or small modular reactors for relatively near- term deployment, or advanced reactors for deployment over the longer term. 4. What are NEI efforts to help US vendors with export promotion? We’ve seen a welcome degree of support for US nuclear exports. We’ve seen, of course, two 123 Agreements, one with the UK and one with Mexico, sent to Congress just this year. Those are important to have in place. We believe there are other countries with whom we should have similar agreements, and we’re optimistic that the administrationwill focus on getting 123 Agreements in place with a wider range of countries. We’ve seen high- level advocacy from the administration for US nuclear vendors. We’ve seen recognition that when our companies try to compete against, particularly, Russia, we’re asking our companies to compete against a state-owned nuclear enterprise. We continue to see progress made when it comes to export controls. Just last month the president signed into law the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included language that will improve efficiency in processing applications for nuclear exports. Both the administration and Congress recognize that we need to help our companies if they’re to successfully compete under those circumstances. We’ve also seen welcome support for restoring the full functionality of the Export-Import Bank, although unfortunately that has not yet found its way through Congress. The ability to provide financing will be an essential component of a US offering when we get to the point of our firms making bids for global nuclear tenders. So, there’s still work to be done, but we’re seeing hopeful signs of support. NEI has a number of trade promotion efforts that further support US engagement with other countries. This year, we are coordinating the US involvement at the International Atomic Energy Agency Ministerial Conference. We have hosted several trade missions over the last year and a half to try to help US nuclear vendors improve their prospects for winning overseas business. We also host foreign delegations to further strengthen these developing relationships, most recently with the Polish nuclear energy delegation. We’ll continue to remain very active on these fronts because of the growing size of the global market for civil nuclear technology. 5. Is there any effort by NEI to enable foreign investments in advanced and small modular reactors under development? In addition to the trade missions that I mentioned, there certainly is an appreciation here for the fact that the civil nuclear industry is very much a global industry. And our companies have a long history of partnering with leading firms internationally on global nuclear commerce, within the legal restrictions. Earlier this summer Congress revised the law that establishes the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which places increased scrutiny and focus on foreign investments in critical technologies. This legislation is critical for our industry in opening new markets and expanding our nuclear footprint. As we look forward to development of SMRs or advanced reactor technology, while I can’t speak for individual companies, I am sure that there will be interest in some of those countries in looking for strategic international partners among our allies, to try to both open new markets, tap into new resources and to also access world-class capabilities overseas. I can’t speak to specific companies’ interest in enabling foreign investment, but it’s certainly something that, to the extent that it has both strategic value to our companies and fits with US law, that it’s something that could be explored. 6. What US NRC reforms are being proposed by the industry to ease the regulatory burden on the utilities? Big picture, we believe that more efficient regulations are going to further enable safety-focused decision making, both at the NRC and for plant operators around the United States. We also believe that getting to a more efficient regulatory process is going to help remove barriers to innovation, and it’s going to help us implement newer and even safer nuclear technology. The biggest challenge we’ve seen is working with the NRC to ensure that the regulations and the regulatory actions being taken do in fact have safety significance. It’s our view that industry performance has outpaced the regulatory framework. In fact, the industry is operating at the highest capacity in its history with an outstanding safety record, and we think regulation should be reflective of the current challenges facing the industry. We do believe that we’re at risk of losing our global leadership position if we don’t get our regulatory processes modernized and reoriented to have the proper safety focus and efficient oversight. We have been encouraged by the leadership of initiatives of the current chairman and by senior career staff. We’re seeing recognition of the need for an evolution in regulatory processes and performance at the NRC, and we’re, of course, eager to continue working with both NEI members and with the regulator to get to regulatory processes that are right for the future of the industry. 7. What is the status of the NRC’s Instrumentation & Control regulatory guide? That’s one area which we think is right for improvement. As you’ve alluded, at the end of May 2018, the NRC issued an endorsement of guidance on upgrading nuclear plant I&C systems to digital. It’s our view that digital instrumentation can boost plant safety, reliability and efficiency, and that upgrading systems can also help extend current reactor operating lifetimes, and can even be designed to provide continuous diagnostic information to operators and provide preventative maintenance alerts, which should help improve plant operations and decrease maintenance costs. So, (Continued on page 27)