The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a new rulemaking Monday that would move its mandatory hearings in licensing reviews towards the beginning of the process rather than towards the end.
According to NRC’s Tuesday press release, the rulemaking, triggered by Executive Order 14300 and the Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act — or the ADVANCE Act — would help the agency refocus on public engagement and information exchange.
The Atomic Energy Act (AEA) requires mandatory hearings or uncontested hearings as a part of the licensing process for new reactors. Historically, these hearings served as a confirmation meeting of the adequacy of NRC’s staff technical review of the application, held after the NRC staff review was complete, according to the Federal Register notice of the rulemaking.
Under the revised policy, the mandatory hearings will now be held during the early stages of the review when public input and agency discussions can be most informative, NRC said. The policy applies immediately to reactor applications under review and those filed in the future, according to the release.
NRC’s policy for a contested hearing process, which allows for formal legal challenges to a license application, remains unchanged, the agency said.
Parallel to this revised policy, NRC finalized a rule in April that would increase flexibility in conducting mandatory hearings. According to the release, this removes certain hearing requirements not mandated by the AEA and clarifies that references to hearings in the commission’s regulations apply to contested hearings, not uncontested mandatory hearings.
Outside NRC’s direct efforts to modernize its reactor licensing hearings, Congress is working on legislation that would eliminate the requirement to hold uncontested hearings on NRC license or construction permit applications. The legislation, Efficient Nuclear Licensing Hearings Act, was introduced by Reps. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), Kim Schrier (D-Wash.) and Marc Veasey (D-Texas).