NRC Finalizes Rule Allowing Reactor Applicants to Use Data From Energy and Defense Department Demonstration Projects
Washington: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on October 22 finalized a rule allowing companies to use analyses, data and information from reactor demonstration projects at the U.S. Department of Energy and the Department of Defense to support reactor license applications. Reuters described it as the first major change to reactor regulations since President Donald Trump ordered the agency to speed up its reviews. (GSM, based on reporting by Reuters)
The rule is intended to support an expected wave of applications for high-technology reactor projects, including small modular reactors. Executive orders signed by Trump in May 2025 directed the NRC to finish approvals for new reactor designs within 18 months, a move that drew criticism that the administration was reducing the NRC's independence. The NRC regulates the safety of nuclear fuel at all stages and oversees the safe operation of the nation's nuclear reactors.
NRC Chairman Ho Nieh told reporters the rule will not allow projects to get around the agency's strict standards. "This is not a shortcut, this is not a compromise," Nieh said. He added that NRC reviews could be more stringent on consequence analysis, the estimation of potential offsite radiological, health or economic impacts of severe reactor accidents, and of hazards from natural events such as earthquakes or tornadoes.
Edwin Lyman, a physicist and nuclear safety activist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said it is critical that the NRC maintain its authority to make independent safety and security determinations and not simply ape the decisions of the Energy and Defense departments, adding that for all their flaws, the NRC's licensing procedures are far more rigorous and transparent than those of the two departments.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：核电站冷却塔（资料图）。Vadim Mouchkin／国际原子能机构图片库（IAEA Imagebank）摄，CC BY-SA 2.0，经维基共享资源。Photo: Cooling towers of a nuclear power plant (file photo). Photo by Vadim Mouchkin / IAEA Imagebank, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
