The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) expects that advanced reactors will provide enhanced margins of safety and that new nuclear power plants will achieve a higher standard of severe accident safety performance than previous reactor designs. Also, the NRC requires that the performance of new safety features be demonstrated by tests, analyses, or a combination thereof. Accordingly, the NRC developed new review standards for future nuclear plant designs based on operating experience, including the accident at Three Mile Island; the results of probabilistic risk assessments; early efforts on severe accident rulemaking; and research conducted to address previously identified generic safety issues. These new standards were used during the design certification reviews performed by the NRC in the 1990s and the resolutions are documented in the NRC's final safety evaluation reports.
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