Memorandum of Cooperation Between the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and the NRC

On August 15, 2019, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) to increase collaboration on the technical reviews of advanced reactor and small modular reactor technologies. Under the terms of this MOC, CNSC and U.S. NRC may take each others’ experiences, regulatory information and results into account when conducting technology assessments for the purposes of feedback to vendors or making recommendations for regulatory decisions.

In September, the USNRC and CNSC signed a charter documenting collaboration on a new project under the MOC covering both countries’ interest in the BWRX-300 small modular reactor design. The Tennessee Valley Authority and Ontario Power Generation are working together on the industry side to share experience and enhance design standardization.  The CNSC and USNRC collaboration is intended to reduce duplication of licensing review efforts, jointly utilize third party verification, identify areas for collaborative verification, share expertise and leverage analysis performed by each organization.