Reform at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is necessary but it must be done without compromising its independence, a Washington D.C.-based think tank wrote in a July 31 commentary.
Former NRC chair Stephen Burns contributed to the piece by Third Way, a national think tank focused on policy and politics. Burns recently spoke at a House subcommittee hearing, reiterating the importance of the agency’s independence to continue to instill public trust and maintain its credibility.
Third Way said it supportS NRC reform but added that progress has been under attack by President Donald Trump administration’s staff from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
On May 23, the Trump administration signed four nuclear-related executive orders with a goal to quadruple the United States nuclear energy fleet to 400 gigawatts by 2050. Among the executive actions, Trump ordered an overhaul of the NRC.
Following the NRC order, the nuclear regulatory agency has undergone upheaval regarding personnel, causing regulatory uncertainty amid the country’s push for nuclear energy, Third Way said.
Commissioners Annie Caputo and Christopher Hanson are no longer with the agency after Hanson was fired by Trump on June 13 and Caputo officially stepped down on Aug. 1. Other prominent NRC staff also left the agency such as former Executive Director of Operations Mirela Gavrilas.
NRC Chair David Wright was reconfirmed by the Senate and was sworn into office recently. But NRC has faced much political scrutiny with critics saying the commission is moving towards becoming a rubber stamp for nuclear licenses.
Correspondingly, the Department of Energy has seen an increased role in accelerating nuclear deployment. Supporting Trump’s order “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy”, DOE has implemented a pilot program to test advanced reactors at its national laboratories sites.
Third Way said agencies such as DOE and Department of Defense should be involved in the whole-of-government strategy for nuclear deployment. But licensing actions by the departments “have intensified concerns that the administration is attempting to leverage these agencies to circumvent the NRC’s proper jurisdiction as the independent regulator of civilian uses of nuclear technology,” Third Way said.
Should the public lose faith in NRC oversight,, the domestic and global nuclear industries are at risk, Third Way wrote.
If international partners perceive interference in the NRC’s decision-making processes, then the U.S. technologies could garner doubt from other countries and would cost the U.S. market its edge in the global nuclear market, Third Way said.
Nuclear energy has been seen as a bipartisan matter in years prior, including the Congressional passage of the Advance Act last year, but the current trajectory of the Trump administration-led reform will undo the many years of bipartisanship, Third Way said.
The Trump administration’s nuclear energy deployment goals are “appropriately ambitious”, Third Way said. But the administration needs to give itself the tools to set up to achieve that, primarily allowing the NRC to operate as an independent, objective and efficient regulator, Third Way added.