Attendees at last week’s 2026 Regulatory Information Conference, hosted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, saw extensive discussion of new reactor technologies, uprates, fusion, multiunit deployments, supply chain, and much more.

With the industry in a state of rapid evolution, there was much to discuss. Connected to all these topics was one central theme: the ongoing changes at the NRC. With massively shortened timelines, the ADVANCE Act and Executive Order 14300, and new interagency collaboration and authorization pathways in mind, speakers spent much of the RIC exploring what the road ahead looks like for the NRC.

In April, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14270, “Zero-Based Regulatory Budgeting to Unleash American Energy,” which calls for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (along with the Department of Energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency) to issue a “sunset rule” to effectively nullify certain regulations in no more than five years.

Dewji

Bahadori

Caffrey

Three authorities on health physics have written a response to President Trump’s Executive Order 14300, “Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.”

Published June 27 on Substack, “Radiation Protection Policy in a Nuclear Era: Recommendations from Health Physicists in Response to EO 14300” was written by Emily A. Caffrey, assistant professor and director of the Health Physics Program at the University of Alabama–Birmingham; Amir A. Bahadori, associate professor at Kansas State University; and Shaheen A. Dewji, assistant professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology.