The Socio-Technical Risk Analysis (SoTeRiA) Research Laboratory in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma and Radiological Engineering (NPRE) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has received a $500,000 grant (2021-2024) from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for “Advancing Uncertainty Analysis Processes in Risk-Informed Regulatory Framework to Support Simulation Approaches for Aging Plants and Advanced Reactors”.
The SoTeRiA Research Laboratory has made scholarly contributions to the science of Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA), which is a key pillar in the risk-informed decision-making framework of the NRC. SoTeRiA has a proven track record of bridging scientific risk analysis research with industry and regulatory challenges. In addition to this NRC grant, SoTeRiA research has received funding from several national sponsors, for example,
- the Department of Energy (DOE) to advance PRA algorithms for the deployment of new technologies in nuclear power plants;
- the DOE to develop systematic enterprise risk management for promoting nuclear fleet sustainability;
- the National Science Foundation (NSF) for big data analytics in PRA; and
- the nuclear power industry for advancing fire risk assessment and for the risk-informed resolution of Generic Safety Issue 191 (GSI-191), a long-standing issue for the nuclear industry and the NRC.
With the desire to create an international think tank for safety, SoTeRiA has conducted research collaborations, for example,
- with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to develop risk-informed methodologies for advanced reactors and
- with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to advance simulation models for risk-informed emergency preparedness and response.