Toward the New Era of Nuclear Safety with Risk Information

Nuclear safety is experiencing a substantial transformation, driven by advancements in probabilistic methods, high-fidelity simulation, digital instrumentation and control, and the pervasive availability of data. Traditional deterministic and prescriptive approaches are increasingly supplemented by risk-informed and performance-based frameworks that account for uncertainty, operational experience, and human and organizational factors. This evolution spans legacy light-water reactors, advanced fission concepts, microreactors, fuel cycle facilities, and emerging fusion systems. Simultaneously, new challenges such as multi-hazard external events, aging assets, cyber-physical interdependencies, and accelerated deployment timelines necessitate more adaptive, transparent, and evidence-based safety decision-making. Integrating modern analytics, including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), with both deterministic and probabilistic insights can improve prioritization, resilience, and regulatory effectiveness while sustaining public trust and enabling innovation.This Research Topic aims to consolidate state-of-the-art methods and demonstrators that operationalize risk information across the nuclear lifecycle, including concept development, design, licensing, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning. Contributions are sought that: (i) advance probabilistic risk assessment (PRA), including dynamic, scenario-based, and multi-hazard approaches; (ii) integrate deterministic safety analysis with PRA to support performance-based criteria and defense-in-depth; (iii) utilize digital instrumentation and control (I&C), online monitoring, and AI/ML for anomaly detection, prognosis, and decision support with rigorous uncertainty quantification; and (iv) address human reliability, organizational performance, and safety culture within risk-informed frameworks. Cross-cutting studies relevant to advanced reactors and fusion facilities are particularly encouraged, including the development of risk metrics tailored to novel technologies and analyses of policy, standards, and regulatory modernization initiatives that enable credible, transparent, and efficient risk-informed oversight.Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:• Next generation PRA: dynamic/event sequence modeling, external hazards, interdependencies• Integration of deterministic–probabilistic methods, safety margins and risk metrics• Uncertainty quantification, V&V, model credibility, evidence synthesis• Digital I&C, diagnostics/prognostics, AI/ML for safety and risk informed O&M• Human reliability analysis, organizational factors, safety culture and risk communication• Resilience engineering, defense-in-depth, and performance-based licensing criteria• Applications to advanced reactors, microreactors, fuel cycle, and fusion facilities• Risk-informed maintenance, outage planning, asset management, and lifecycle economics• Risk-informed design for nuclear cogeneration and industrial interfaces• Regulatory modernization, standards development, and practical implementation case studies. Topic editors: Belal Almomani, Hyun Gook Kang, Ha Bui Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85803/toward-the-new-era-of-nuclear-safety-with-risk-information