NRI Annual Review 2024 - Flipbook - Page 35
take into account other liability
regimes that may be applicable.
There is a consensus that
nuclear liability conventions
will apply to the DGRs in their
operational phase. However,
with the exception of the Paris
Convention on Third Party
Liability, it is unclear whether
other conventions – namely the
Vienna Conventions and the
Convention on Supplementary
Compensation – apply to DGRs
in the post-closure phase. The
concept of closure is also not
de昀椀ned under the conventions.
The majority of nuclear liability
conventions allow for the
possibility of setting a lower
amount of nuclear liability for
certain types of installations
that do not produce the same
level of risk as, for instance,
nuclear power reactors. For
these type of facilities, it may be
possible to reduce the amount of
liability by national legislation,
or even to exclude this type of
installation from the nuclear
liability regime. The OECD
report’s general recommendation
is for states to provide a clear
de昀椀nition of nuclear installation
in their national legislation. This
de昀椀nition should detail whether,
and at which corresponding
stage of their lifecycle, geological
repositories will be subject to
the National Nuclear Liability
Regime, in accordance with the
applicable convention, if any.
The report also recommends
that states looking to classify a
DGR as a low-risk installation
for the purposes of the nuclear
liability regime, or looking to
exclude a DGR from such a
regime, should carefully assess
the risks associated with this
facility. Under the conventions,
the operator is the only entity
liable to compensate victims
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‘channeling principle’ in case
of a nuclear incident, so it is
paramount to clearly de昀椀ne the
operator of the DGR during the
facility’s lifetime. In national
legislation or regulations, states
should therefore consider
including in their legal
frameworks the terms and
conditions of a possible transfer
of nuclear liability from the
operator to the state during the
DGR’s post-closure phase.
International
developments
in SMRs
The Nuclear Technology
Development and Economics
Division of the OECD’s Nuclear
Energy Agency (NEA), has, like
the IAEA, undertaken much work
in the new technology space in
recent months. The NEA briefed
the NRI Frontiers community
on international developments
in small modular reactor (SMR)
strategy and innovation, as
captured by the NEA’s SMR
Dashboard and applied to the
NEA’s 34 member countries. This
dashboard covers six different
criteria: licensing, siting and
construction journey, talent
pipeline, 昀椀nancing, supply chain,
and public engagement.
The NEA undertook a
benchmarking exercise to
determine the progress of various
SMRs on the development and
deployment pathway. Clearly,
the attraction of SMR technology
is its suitability for coal
replacement, industrial activities
like off-grid mining, merchant
shipping, and heat and hydrogen
production. And already the
technology space – on paper, at
least – appears a crowded 昀椀eld.
New technologies
are different not
only in design... but
also in their use of
new equipment...
as well as in new
ways to deploy
The NEA’s SMR strategy and
dashboard examine the status of
many SMR features from design
through to delivery. It is therefore
intentionally designed as on
ongoing tool to support SMR
deployment. For example, there
is the technology portion and
R&D being conducted to assess
progress and readiness across a
suite of enabling conditions.
Fuel quali昀椀cation and commercial
availability are, arguably, the
two most critical paths at the
moment. However, once the 昀椀rst
SMRs are built in North America
and Europe, the 昀椀nancing of
the technology should become
more straightforward, and the
associated risks should reduce.
If the regulators can harmonise
regulations and policies, that
would also go a long way to
establishing a more global market
for these reactors.
With China’s own HTR SMR now
operational, it is clear that these
technologies are ready to go
and the enabling conditions can
be established. China delivered
licensing, siting and fuel supply
and created their own supply
chain, demonstrating the future
viability of SMRs. And it did
this primarily with government
昀椀nancing, while NRI provides
nuclear reinsurance in support of
the China Nuclear Insurance Pool.
