Now over six months into Ho Nieh’s tenure, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair said Wednesday the agency is becoming a regulator that enables and accelerates nuclear technology deployment through its new rulemakings and approaches.
“One of the big changes that was driven by the executive orders was again that call for immediate action to focus on a wholesale review of the NRC’s regulations, so we mobilized a workforce to deliver on revising a whole suite of regulations for our licensing work,” Nieh said during a United Coalition for Advanced Nuclear (UCAN) Power webinar.
Nieh continued,“[President Donald] Trump’s executive orders said ‘you know what we need now to get the red tape out of the system.’ That’s exactly what we’re doing.”
During the webinar, Nieh said NRC has developed 21 draft rules, with several of them already being published for public comment.
While NRC has been undergoing a lot of changes over the past year, the agency has worried environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers, particularly about NRC’s independence and commitment to safety. Some critics said the NRC’s changes cut corners to deploy new reactors and nuclear technologies sooner.
For NRC’s proposed rule to create an additional pathway for Department of Energy- and Pentagon-approved reactor designs, 13 organizations criticized the rule, saying it would essentially rubber stamp those designs for deployment.
Nieh said during the webinar that enabling regulation aligns NRC’s regulations with risk and operational needs, adapting its frameworks to new technologies and adding regulatory flexibility while safety is maintained.
“We’re not cutting corners so I want to make that very clear, the one thing that has not changed at NRC is our safety mission and our focus on our core safety mission,” Nieh said. “What is changing is how we work. We’re achieving both safety and speed, again not by cutting corners or taking shortcuts, we’re moving the things that are unnecessary that slow us down.”
The agency this week proposed an overhaul of changes to its oversight of nuclear security requirements. Announced Tuesday, NRC’s 252-page proposed rulemaking aims to put in place a modernized, performance-based framework to address notable risks and reduce “unnecessary regulatory burden while maintaining strong security protections,” the agency said in a press release. Some particular changes would revise security requirements for independent spent fuel storage installations and streamline physical security requirements for nuclear reactors and materials.
The newest proposed changes come as the NRC is continuing its overhaul of its reactor oversight process and reactor security rules, as directed by Executive Order 14300. The presidential action, issued in May 2025, called for an overhaul of the NRC, including a wholesale revision of its rules and regulations. NRC approved proposed changes to its reactor oversight process that would reduce inspection hours by 38% in March.
During the webinar, Nieh said changes to its reactor oversight and security regulations reflect the agency’s focus on efficiency while keeping safety at the forefront. He said reductions can occur because the agency previously had duplicated procedures. Many of its processes dwelt on very low-risk activities. The situation distracted the “regulator’s attention and industry’s attention.”
“When you have a high-performing industry that you are regulating, you want to focus on the things that are most significant and not distract from their ability to stay at that high-performance level,” Nieh said.
“So I’m 100% confident in the NRC staff and the regions and what they do on a day-to-day basis to ensure that the nation’s facilities can operate with high levels of safety and reliability,” Nieh finished.