Document: NRC Regulatory Guide
Document ID: 9c99a4b7-8619-41f0-b716-262bfdb03941
Document Type: regulatory_guide
Title: Developing Principal Design Criteria for Non-Light Water Reactors + HISTORY - HISTORY 02/2017 – DG-1330 , Proposed Revision 0
Source: NRC Regulatory Guide Division 1
Source URL: https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1630/ML16301A307.pdf
Revision Date: 2023-06
Chapter: 
Section ID: RG-1.232
CFR Part: 
CFR Title: 

Content:
artment of Energy (DOE) established a joint initiative to address a key element in the regulatory framework that could apply to non-LWR technologies— specifically, to address the existing GDC, which may not directly apply to non-LWR power plant designs. The purpose of the initiative is to assess the GDC to determine whether they apply to non-LWR designs and, if not, to propose the PDC that address non-LWR design features while recognizing that the underlying safety objective of each GDC still applies. The assessment of the GDC with respect to non-LWR designs was accomplished in two phases. Phase 1 was managed by a team including representatives of the DOE and its national laboratories, and 1 Similar language is included in 10 CFR 52.47(a)(3)(i), 10 CFR 52.79(a)(4), 10 CFR 52.137(a)(3), and 10 CFR 52.157(a). DG-1330, Page 8 consisted of reviews and evaluations of applicable technical information. The DOE team reviewed information related to six different types of non-LWR technologies (i.e., sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs), lead fast reactors (LFRs), gas-cooled fast reactors (GCRs), modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (mHTGRs), fluoride high-temperature reactors (FHRs), and molten-salt reactors (MSRs)). Using this information, DOE then reviewed the existing NRC GDC to determine their applicability and whether they should be modified to reflect non-LWR designs. The results of DOE’s assessment are contained in a DOE report titled, “Guidance for Developing Principal Design Criteria for Advanced (Non-Light Water) Reactors.” DOE submitted this report to the NRC for consideration in December 2014 (Ref. 17). In it, DOE proposed a set of advanced reactor design criteria (ARDC), which could serve the same purpose for non-LWRs as the GDC serve for LWRs. The ARDC are intended to be technology neutral and, therefore, could apply to any type of non-LWR design. In addition to the technology-neutral ARDC, DOE proposed two sets of technology-specific, non-LWR