Morphing from a Separate Effects to Multiphysics Characterization Environment

Morphing from a Separate Effects to Multiphysics Characterization Environment

Within the nuclear industry regulated safety has been constructed on a foundation of precedence. Although nuclear power has provided a sustained energy supply to the electrical grid for more than a half century now, it is still a very young technology; as such there is little data which supports risk assessment. The minimal data which has been collected from a risk based perspective within the nuclear industry has steered the United States’ nuclear regulatory body (the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) to operate on conservatism and precedence (both valid and logical bases for an approach to safety).