Professor Arden Rowell has teamed up with the Socio-Technical Risk Analysis (SoTeRiA) Research Laboratory, led by Nuclear, Plasma, & Radiological Engineering Associate Professor Zahra Mohaghegh on a new research grant from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The grant, titled “Context-Based Analysis of a Risk-informed, Performance-based Regulatory Approach for Advanced Nuclear Reactors,” will span from 2024 to 2027. The project aims to help the NRC—the agency responsible for regulating the safety of civilian nuclear reactors—identify how to effectively use its aging statutory mandates to address new and emerging nuclear technologies. 

“The NRC’s legal responsibility to regulate nuclear energy has never been more important,” Prof. Rowell emphasizes. “Reactor technology is advancing rapidly even as the risks of relying on fossil fuels become increasingly apparent. How can NRC best regulate the risks and opportunities presented by advanced reactor technologies, while still staying true to its legal and democratic mandate to protect people and the environment? This is a legitimately difficult question, and I hope that our collaboration can help NRC craft a creative but implementable answer.”   

NPRE Associate Professor Zahra Mohaghegh, has highlighted the value of this project as a collaboration between engineering and law experts. “Because accident scenarios must consider social and environmental distress, managerial deficiency, and human error as well as physical and technical system failures, I believe that risk analysis and risk-informed regulation require the development of a common vocabulary within diverse engineering and social science domains to address risk emerging from the interface of social and technical systems,” said Prof. Mohaghegh.  

Professors Rowell and Mohaghegh are affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where engineering and non-engineering experts collaborate to address complex real-world problems. They have previously collaborated on a DOE project and are now looking forward to a new collaboration under this NRC grant, supporting development and enhancement of risk-informed performance-based regulatory approaches. This project will aid decision-makers and stakeholders in ensuring safe, resilient, sustainable, and socially and environmentally responsible technological advancements for nuclear energy.