Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission: Outreach and Consultation – Regulatory Framework and Lessons Learned for Advanced Reactor Technology

Abstract

The Nuclear Safety and Control Act [1] mandates the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) to disseminate objective scientific, technical and regulatory information to the public. To that end, the CNSC has a long history of engaging and consulting, through various mediums and vehicles, with industry, stakeholders, the public and Indigenous peoples.

The possibility of advanced reactor technology being deployed in Canada requires proponents of these technologies to engage and consult in meaningful ways with stakeholders, the public, Indigenous peoples and others in industry. The CNSC has articulated its expectations and requirements on engagement in its regulatory documents, known as REGDOCs. This paper describes some of these expectations for prospective applicants of SMRs, and how they have been applied to CNSC’s own outreach and engagement activities over the previous ten years. More recently, lessons learned in the last year of the pandemic have brought new perspective and a possible rethink of expectations on outreach in CNSC’s regulatory framework for vendors and potential licensees of Advanced Reactor Technologies.