Hatch nuclear power plant in Georgia. (Photo: Southern Nuclear)
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has renewed the operating licenses of Hatch-1 and-2 in under 12 months, the agency announced Friday.
Southern Nuclear’s application was accepted by the NRC in June 2025. The Baxley, Ga., facility’s two boiling water reactors are the second and third units to receive subsequent license renewals under the NRC’s new, streamlined process for renewing operating licenses in 12 months or less. Previously completed SLR proceedings took, on average, about two-and-a-half years.
“The NRC continues to demonstrate we can reach timely decisions while maintaining our strict safety oversight,” NRC Director of the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Anna Bradford said in a statement. “The staff’s ability to focus on key factors necessary for long-term plant performance and to implement continuous learning enabled us to efficiently secure another 1.8 gigawatts of power on the grid for 20 more years.”
Background on Hatch: The 20-year subsequent license renewal extends the operating licenses of both Hatch reactors from 60 to 80 years. Hatch-1 is now licensed through August 2054 and Hatch-2 through June 2058. The NRC approved the two-unit, 1,793-MWe plant’s initial 20-year license renewal in January 2002, which extended Unit 1’s license through August 2034 and Unit 2’s through June 2038.
The NRC issued Hatch’s final environmental assessment in March and its safety evaluation report in May.
Who’s next? Hatch’s SLR approval comes just over a month after the NRC approved an SLR application for Duke Energy’s Robinson, located in Hartsville, S.C., within 12 months. Robinson was the first reactor unit to undergo the expedited review process.
A look at the status of initial license renewal and SLR applications shows two more power plant facilities awaiting a decision from the NRC. The agency accepted SLR applications for Nine Mile Point-1 in New York in April and for Nebraska’s Cooper power plant earlier in June. Under the accelerated timeline, the facilities should receive decisions from the NRC in or before April 2027 and June 2027, respectively.
The Tennessee Valley Authority intends to submit its initial license renewal application for Watts Bar-1 in the last three months of 2026, according to the NRC’s list of future submittals of applications. Constellation, meanwhile, is expected to submit the SLR application for its Ginna power plant by the end of June, according to the list.
Another nine SLR applications are expected to come in during 2027, according to the NRC.
