NPRE associate professor Zahra Mohaghegh recently gave presented during a panel discussion at a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) briefing.
Mohaghegh was invited by Chair Christopher Hanson and Commissioners Jeff Baran, David Wright, Annie Caputo, and Bradley Crowell to participate in the public Commission meeting on March 30, 2023, on the subject of " Briefing on Nuclear Regulatory Research Program."
Dr. Mohaghegh’s presentation focused on building capabilities at universities through the University Nuclear Leadership Program (UNLP) mission-related research and development grants. She emphasized the vital role that UNLP grants play in fostering cutting-edge research and nurturing talented, purpose-driven students to address emerging safety concerns in existing nuclear power plants and to expedite the development of next-generation reactors. Dr. Mohaghegh also highlighted the criticality of NRC support in cross-cutting areas such as Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA) to enable expedited and cost-effective implementation of a risk-informed, performance-based regulatory framework, and to help improve the efficiency of regulation while maintaining the nuclear industry’s successful safety record.
The NRC briefing brought together experts from various organizations, including the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the Southwest Research Institute, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and the NRC staff. Together, these experts discussed topics such as the role of research in building core capabilities and advancing nuclear safety, interactions with the NRC on advanced reactors and accident-tolerant fuel, and forward-looking research associated with advanced reactor technologies.
You can view: Briefing on Nuclear Regulatory Research Program (Video).