Above: Romanian Energy Minister Virgil Popescu, E-Infra CEO Teofil Muresan,


Nuclearelectrica Chairman Teodor Chirica and US Under Secretary for Economic Development, Energy & Environment Jose Fernandez announce the creation of RoPower Nuclear Source: Nuclearelectrica


Inexperienced authorities, or those that have not been


exposed to a new build project for decades, may have a hard time setting up clear frameworks for licensing SMRs and will lack experienced personnel to assess new reactor designs. This can result in inconsistent requirements, excessive documentation, and elongated review and approval times. The owner’s engineer plays an important role as an interface to the safety authority, helping the licensee to write robust safety justifications for new designs that can be more easily processed by the authority.


Supply chain challenges The supply chain is key to ensuring an SMR is built to the highest standards. As safety is an utmost priority, there must be no weaknesses in any part of this chain. However, few countries can deploy an SMR project that relies solely on regional suppliers, so a global supply chain is required. This brings inherent risk related to cross-border logistics, regulatory compliance, and quality assurance. While the expected build time for an SMR is significantly shorter than that for a large nuclear power plant, they still require long-term and reliable suppliers that fulfil regulatory requirements and deliver consistent quality. As SMR owners rely on global supply chains, an owner’s engineer can help them structure these effectively. For example, they might recommend a graded approach for the supply chain, as outlined in quality standards such as ISO 19443 or ASME NQA-1. This helps to balance quality with economic aspects to enable safe and commercially feasible nuclear projects. For projects to succeed, owners require long-term


relationships with their suppliers throughout the facility’s lifecycle. An owner’s engineer also ensures that organisations within the supply chain can demonstrate their quality management system (QMS) meets specific nuclear industry requirements. For example, as nuclear safety is of the highest importance, alignment with ISO 19443 ensures additionally that a sound nuclear safety culture is in place throughout the entire nuclear supply chain. This quality management standard is specific to the nuclear industry and has recently been internationally harmonised. It is designed to improve safety and quality throughout the nuclear supply chain. ISO 19443 is increasingly becoming a certified


requirement for organisations that supply products and services important to nuclear safety (ITNS). With the growth


in the commercial deployment of SMRs, alongside concerns about the growing number of counterfeit, fraudulent, and suspect (CFS) items within the supply chain, many stakeholders are encouraging companies to become ISO 19443 certified.


Proving SMR technology safety Another key challenge is proving the technological maturity and safety of SMR designs. With many SMRs in the planning phase, but only a few in the advanced stages of construction globally, the industry faces the dilemma of trusting unproven designs that have never been built and operated. For example, calculating failure rates of a system may be challenging if it has never been operated in this way or under these conditions. This uncertainty increases the complexity of risk assessments, requiring innovative approaches to demonstrate safety. SMRs’ small size and flexible deployment capabilities


offer distinct advantages over traditional nuclear power generation, as they can be developed for a wider range of applications such as district heating or industrial power supply, replacing old coal power plants. This will see nuclear reactors coming into closer proximity with dense populations, necessitating rigorous proof of safety concepts, and therefore a design philosophy that aligns and complies with regulatory requirements from the start. We believe the design and safety philosophy needs


to align with the project. For example, US projects have historically emphasised a probabilistic safety assessment philosophy, while most European countries prioritise a deterministic approach. This can impact the selection of relevant incident and accident events when assessing the safety of a nuclear facility. An owner’s engineer will have the necessary expertise to apply a combination of both probabilistic and deterministic safety analysis. This combined approach will quantify the likelihood of consequences from potential failures and assesses the performance of safety systems, thus ensuring their functionality. An owner’s engineer with international experience offers insight and support within the regulatory landscape. They understand an authority’s requirements and expectations, as well as national and international regulations, codes and standards relevant to a particular project. This helps to anticipate those aspects that will face additional scrutiny or resistance.


www.neimagazine.com | September 2025 | 17


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