NRC staff is reviewing the application to determine if it has sufficient information to begin the agency’s detailed safety and environmental reviews.
Background: In July 2022, the Georgia Public Service Commission approved Georgia Power’s request to begin the multiyear process to extend Hatch’s license as part of the company’s 2022 Integrated Resource Plan. A decision from the NRC on the SLR application is expected in the next few years.
Duke Energy’s Oconee plant in South Carolina is the most recent to be granted an SLR, on March 31, and is the 12th U.S. plant the NRC has approved for 80-year operation.
Learn more: The NRC has made Hatch’s SLR application available for public review. Learn more about the licensing process on the NRC’s website.
From the headlines: The NRC’s extensive review process has been the target of recent criticism from President Donald Trump, who said in one of four pro–nuclear development executive orders issued on May 23, “The NRC charges applicants by the hour to process license applications, with prolonged timelines that maximize fees while throttling nuclear power development. The NRC has failed to license new reactors even as technological advances promise to make nuclear power safer, cheaper, more adaptable, and more abundant than ever. This failure stems from a fundamental error: Instead of efficiently promoting safe, abundant nuclear energy, the NRC has instead tried to insulate Americans from the most remote risks without appropriate regard for the severe domestic and geopolitical costs of such risk aversion.”
Licensing reforms have already begun at the commission under provisions of the bipartisan ADVANCE Act passed by Congress last year. The legislation directed the NRC to examine its licensing process for new nuclear technology and study ways to speed it up. It also designated federal funding to cover licensing and permitting costs for the first advanced nuclear power operator to successfully deploy its technology and would stand up a federal initiative to help other nations develop advanced nuclear reactors.
Trump’s order goes further and faster, ordering the NRC to conduct a “wholesale revision of its regulations and guidance” within nine months.
