In a Monday memo, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission effectively killed a proposed licensing path for advanced nuclear reactors that industry and some lawmakers said was too burdensome.
The decision was a step in the commission’s Part 53 rulemaking that will create a new method for licensing a technically diverse group of reactor designs legally classified as advanced reactors. The proposed rule, in development since 2020, should be published in “about six months,” the civilian nuclear regulator wrote Monday in a press release. A final rule could be out in July 2025, NRC has forecast.
In Monday’s memo, released along with some supporting documents, commissioners said they disapproved of what was known as Part 53’s Framework B, one of two licensing options Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff had considered.
Framework B would have required operators of new reactors to conduct lengthy analyses of worst-case scenarios called probabilistic risk assessments, something that the industry said would make Part 53 too similar to other licensing paths in NRC’s regulations.
Asked Monday why the commission disapproved of Framework B, NRC Chair Christopher Hanson said “I think overall the commission thought it was important that this be a clear, standalone step forward in terms of use of risk information.”
Hanson spoke to reporters Monday in a video call from commission headquarters in Rockville, Md.
In Monday’s memo, the commission also told staff to consider whether the NRC needs a new rule or a non-mandatory guidance for companies that want to license their advanced reactors under parts 50 and 52 of the agency’s regulations. Staff were told to report back “sometime in the next year on that,” Hanson said Monday.
In a letter to the NRC published last year by Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, a bipartisan and bicameral group of U.S. lawmakers said Framework B would have greatly slowed the pace at which NRC could license advanced reactors.
Hanson is serving out the remainder of a commissioner’s term that expires June 30.
