The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a new rule that would streamline its Atomic Safety and Licensing Board adjudicatory hearings on most license applications, which include new reactors and license renewals.
“This rulemaking would enable the NRC to meet these deadlines for applications even when they are the subject of hearing requests by reforming its contested hearing process to accelerate timelines, simplify procedures, reduce burdens, while preserving due process,” NRC said in its Tuesday press release.
This proposed rulemaking is part of President Donald Trump’s executive action, “Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission” and the wholesale revision that was called for by it. The comment period for this proposed rule, which can be found in the Federal Register, closes on April 2.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy said this week it selected 46 domestic nuclear energy-related research projects to share a total of $52.8 million.
The Office of Nuclear Energy said in its Tuesday press release the awards support technology development and early career faculty research activities that contribute to President Donald Trump administration’s nuclear power initiatives.
The selected projects are said to increase access to research infrastructure and grow the United States’s nuclear workforce, DOE said.
The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board has posted a job opening for its executive director role this week.
According to the USAJOBS.gov, the application opened on March 4 and will close on March 18. The opening comes after then executive Daniel Ogg retired in late December 2025. Ogg headed the board for over three years and was a member of its professional staff since 2014.
Jordan Gillis, the assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment and the Pentagon, said the Army is in the “middle” of source selection for the Janus program in testimony to the House Armed Services Committee.
“We’re a little bit in the middle of source selection in our Janus program, talking to companies that submitted proposals,” Gillis said in response to a question by Rep. Derek Schmidt (R-Kan.) about nuclear generation at Fort Riley. “But I can tell you that the process is once we have narrowed down the companies that we want to do business with, we will match them up with installations where it makes sense and where we have willing utility partners, willing states, and then we’ll have our list of companies and installations. And so more to follow, and we can brief you on that as the project progresses.”
The Janus program was announced in October by the Army and Energy Department in response to an earlier directive from President Donald Trump for DoD to operate a nuclear reactor at a military installation by September 2028.
President of LMNT Consulting Steve Nesbit will be joining the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as a part-time administrative judge in the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel effective March 23, according to his Wednesday LinkedIn Post.
Prior to his time with LMNT Consulting, Nesbit was the president of American Nuclear Society from 2021 to 2022. Nesbit additionally worked at Duke Energy for over 30 years, holding the position of director of nuclear policy and support.