President Donald Trump’s administration on May 23 ordered an overhaul of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission within 18 months in order to speed approval of advanced nuclear energy projects.
In the executive action “Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission”, Trump directed a major redesign of the independent regulatory agency’s structure and regulations.
NRC was told to work with other entities, including the Department of Government Efficiency, in its restructuring.
“The NRC is assessing the executive orders and will comply with White House directives,” the NRC told Exchange Monitor. “We look forward to continuing to work with the administration, DOE and DoD [Department of Defense] on future nuclear programs.”
Under the order, the NRC will be tasked to draft a revision of its regulations and guidance documents within nine months. The entire process, including the proposed rulemaking, should be complete within 18 months, according to the order.
In its “wholesale revision” of its regulations, the order said the NRC’s policies should help grow the nation’s nuclear capacity from 100 gigawatts in 2024 to 400 gigawatts by 2050.
The order said final decisions on new reactor applications should take no more than 18 months. A decision on a license extension application for an existing plant shall be no more than a year.
Since the 1970s, the Trump administration said onerous licensing regulations have discouraged nuclear power development in the United States.
“The NRC utilizes safety models that posit there is no safe threshold of radiation exposure and that harm is directly proportional to the amount of exposure,” the Trump administration said in the order. “A myopic policy of minimizing even trivial risks ignores the reality that substitute forms of energy production also carry risk, such as pollution with potentially deleterious health effects.”
Director of nuclear power safety at the Union Concerned Scientists (UCS) Edwin Lyman condemned Trump’s recent nuclear executive orders. Lyman claimed that nuclear deployment bypassing regulations puts the U.S. nuclear industry at risk. “Simply put, the U.S. nuclear industry will fail if safety is not made a priority,” Lyman said in a UCS May 23 press release.
“By fatally compromising the independence and integrity of the NRC, and by encouraging pathways for nuclear deployment that bypass the regulator entirely, the Trump administration is virtually guaranteeing that this country will see a serious accident or other radiological release that will affect the health, safety and livelihoods of millions,” Lyman said
Along with the overhaul of NRC processes, the order said there could be a reduction in the agency’s workforce in conjunction with the reorganization. However, certain functions could increase in size consistent with the policies in the order, including those involved with new reactor licensing.
The Trump administration particularly calls for the reduction of the NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards in the order. Review by the advisory committee licensing and permitting issues “shall focus on issues that are truly novel or noteworthy,” as said in the order.
Additionally, the order tasked the NRC to create a team of at least 20-officials to draft new regulations guided by the order.
