Changes that Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials have labeled as significant could be coming to the agency’s environmental review regulations if its proposed rule on National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures moves forward.

With notable changes potentially incoming—such as no longer requiring draft environmental impact statements and the addition of new categorical exclusions—NRC staff shared additional details on these and other proposals during a July 23 meeting on the NEPA proposed rule.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing changes to its environmental review regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that agency officials call the most significant in decades.

The proposed rule—published in the Federal Register on Tuesday—streamlines 10 CFR Part 51 and calls for no longer requiring draft environmental impact statements (EIS), adding new categorical exclusions that exempt licensing actions from NEPA review, and reducing the regulatory burden in its environmental reviews, among other things. The NRC will accept public comments on the proposed rulemaking until August 21, with plans to hold a public hearing during the comment period.

Plans to test a prototype mobile microreactor designed to military requirements moved ahead when the Department of Defense (DOD), acting through its Strategic Capabilities Office and with the Department of Energy serving as a cooperating agency, on September 16 announced the availability of a draft environmental impact statement for the construction and demonstration phase of Project Pele.