Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) Floating Seismic Isolation System (FSIS)

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	Top: FSIS Site with SMRs   Left: SMR Paired with FSIS
Who:   Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), with its corporate partners the IHI Corporation, and the JGC Corporation (hereafter the “JAEA Consortium”). What:   Pre-Application activities associated with a 10 CFR Part 52 Standard Design Approval (SDA) or 10 CFR Part 52 Design Certification. When:   September 2023 to Present WNN Article:   https://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Japan-demonstrates-floating-seismic-isolation-syst

On this page:

• Project Overview
• Public Meeting Summaries
• Regulatory Engagement Plan
• White Papers
• Licensing Topical Reports

Project Overview

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is currently engaged in pre-application activities with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and its corporate partners the IHI Corporation, and the JGC Corporation (hereafter the “JAEA Consortium”) regarding a standard design application (SDA) for a Floating Seismic Isolation System (FSIS) paired with a yet named Small Modular Reactor (SMR). The SDA is an NRC staff nuclear plant design approval, issued under 10 CFR Part 52, subpart E. The approval may be for either the final design for the entire reactor facility or the final design of major portions thereof. The paired SMR design concept, as described by the JAEA Consortium is designed to withstand the terrestrial ground accelerations associated with high seismic risk zones substantially reducing seismic responses of the reactor in horizontal and vertical directions.

Public Meeting Summaries

Meeting Date	Title	Meeting Summary
09/05/2023	Meeting Summary on Japan Atomic Energy Agency Floating Seismic Isolation System for SMRs.	ML23258A197
11/2024	FSIS QAP, design verification, and seismic site envelope
03/2026	FSIS Paired SMR Conceptual design
03/2027	Probabilistic risk analysis (PRA), on FSIS-reactor pairing

Regulatory Engagement Plan

The JAEA Consortium plans to engage the NRC staff in pre-application activities that would culminate in either a DC application paired with a yet determined SMR or as part of an NRC Standard Design Approval process (SDA) as soon as 2028.

Title	Date Submitted
JAEA Consortium Regulatory Engagement Plan Revision 0.	07/29/2024

White Papers

The below table provides the licensing white papers (WP) that the JAEA Consortium has submitted for the NRC staff to review. This table will be updated to include all white papers submitted along with the meeting summaries that contain the NRC staff feedback to the subject white papers.

Title	Status/Report
JAEA QA WP:  November 23 (ML23317A114 – proprietary) overview of the quality assurance that JAEA used in establishing the scale model testing of the FSIS concept.	ML23347A090
FSIS QAP:  Quality Assurance Program (QAP) for project, technology, and design	November 2024
FSIS V&V: FSIS verification testing, design criteria (standards & regulations), and safety analysis methodology	November 2024
FSIS Pared SMR: Design criteria and regulations, methodology, data needs, and documentation; Preliminary conceptual design	March 2025
FSIS Pared SMR: Conceptual design description	March 2026

Licensing Topical Reports

The below table provides the licensing topical reports (LTRs) that the JAEA Consortium is planning to submit for the NRC staff review in the near future. This table will be updated to include all future and completed LTRs submitted along with the NRC staff Safety Evaluation Reports.

Submittal Date	Title	Topical Report Submittal ADAMS Accession No.	Staff Final Safety Evaluation Report  Accession No.	Approved version of Licensing Topical Report (“-A”)
March 2025	Quality Assurance Program (QAP)	TBD	TBD	TBD
September 2025	FSIS verification and, design, and safety analysis methodology validation	TBD	TBD	TBD
March 2027	Paired SMR PRA	TBD	TBD	TBD