Beyond Emergency Preparedness Zones – Making Nuclear Emergency Management Frameworks Work for SMRs

As small modular reactors (SMRs) move closer to deployment, one big question keeps coming up: how do we adapt traditional nuclear emergency planning frameworks to technologies that pose much lower risks? This talk looks at how emergency management programs can be better matched to the actual risk profile of SMRs, while still meeting the safety expectations of the fifth level of defence in depth. This talk also explores what emergency management frameworks are needed for new jurisdictions, whether it be in new countries or regions, or in different environments, like the far North.

For the past decade, we have been researching the optimization of emergency planning zones (EPZs). We have developed an alternative framework to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s publication on public protective actions (EPR-NPP-PPA 2013) that would have an appropriately graded approach for low-risk power reactor facilities, essentially exploring what the emergency preparedness and response framework would look like if the necessary size of an EPZ was determined to be within the site boundary. This is demonstrated with a case study, using a generic pebblebed hightemperature gascooled reactor shows how source terms, offsite impacts, and technologyspecific operational intervention levels (OILs) could work together to trigger appropriate, but nonurgent, protective measures.

The talk also looks at what this means in a real Canadian context. Several SMR projects are ongoing in Canada, but the Darlington new build is located on an existing site, with that and several other proposals co-located on existing facilities with existing emergency response frameworks. The next green field new build is likely to be either in the provinces of Saskatchewan, Alberta, or the Canadian northern territories. Because provinces lead emergency management in Canada, these jurisdictions must build their own provincial nuclear emergency response plans (PNERPs). Drawing from Canadian regulations, standards, and existing provincial plans in Ontario and New Brunswick, and guided by the IAEA’s Milestones approach, we outline what new jurisdictions would need to consider, which standards apply, and how PNERP development could align with the provinces’ SMR project timelines.

, this talk gives a practical, Canadian-focused look at how emergency management frameworks can evolve to support the safe, efficient, and responsible deployment of SMRs.