Policy

Studies, regulatory control, and legislation are among the items Nebraska, Minnesota, Indiana, and North Carolina tackled in the month of May regarding nuclear energy.

This Saturday, May 23, will mark one year since President Trump issued four executive orders (EOs) that sought to implement sweeping changes across the U.S. nuclear industry. From regulatory reform at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to new authorization projects at the Departments of Energy and Defense, the orders sent ripples throughout the industry.

Proposed nuclear energy legislation with bipartisan support earned the attention of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Wednesday morning.

Subject-matter experts and the chief sponsors of the legislation shared details on three items at a hearing Wednesday before the EPW Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Innovation and Safety: the Build Nuclear with Local Materials Act—introduced just last week—and discussion drafts of the Revitalizing Energy Communities by Hosting Advanced Reactors and Generating Energy (RECHARGE) Act and Enrichment Licensing Modernization Act.

Lawmakers in Congress have introduced a pair of bills this month targeting different aspects of nuclear construction, with one proposal focusing on construction material and the other on tax credits.

Last month, all five commissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission went before the U.S. House Committee on Energy & Commerce’s Energy Subcommittee to discuss the agency’s fiscal year 2027 budget and share priorities and activities key to the agency.

On Wednesday, the five took the NRC’s $892.3 million budget request for FY 2027 to the U.S. Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, where the focus shifted more toward the attrition of NRC employees and attempts to recruit and retain.

Pending, passed, and coveted legislation involving nuclear energy made their way across multiple state capitol buildings in the month of April. Here are a few notable updates from California, Iowa, Kentucky, and Missouri.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has released a new licensing framework for microreactors and similar reactor designs that may provide a more suitable pathway for applicants with simpler technologies.

The proposed rule—known as Part 57—is the latest to come out of the NRC’s rules review and overhaul stemming from the ADVANCE Act and 2025 nuclear-related executive orders. It is also the latest framework developed for advanced reactor designs shifting away from light water reactor technology, such as the Part 53 rule finalized in March.

All five commissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission provided insight into the agency’s priorities, activities, and its proposed $892.3 million budget for fiscal year 2027 when they testified before the U.S. House Committee on Energy & Commerce’s Energy subcommittee on Wednesday.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright has spent the past week courting members of Congress to approve his agency’s $53.9 billion discretionary budget request for fiscal year 2027. On Tuesday, Wright spoke before the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. On April 15, Wright testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy & Water Development and Related Agencies. And on April 16, he testified before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is moving forward with its plans to reorganize around three core business lines: new reactors, operating reactors, and nuclear materials and waste. In order to do that, the agency will establish two new offices: the Office of Advanced Reactors (OAR) and the Office of the Chief Nuclear Reactor Inspector (CNRI).

Sen. Mike Lee (R., Utah), chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (ENR), has introduced a bill that would grant the Department of Energy greater authority over new nuclear projects under the federal agency’s oversight.

The Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP) called for the deployment of six 77-MWe pressurized water reactors at Idaho National Laboratory that would provide power to INL and to Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) customers in Utah and surrounding states. But UAMPS and NuScale Power mutually agreed to end the project in late 2023, ending a first-of-a-kind SMR project that was years in the making.

Total project costs, had it been completed, were estimated at $8.03 billion, with $1.36 billion coming from the Department of Energy as part of a 10-year, noncompetitive, cost-share award.

The Board of Directors of the American Nuclear Society, along with the ANS Public Policy Committee (PPC), recently approved revisions to Position Statement #35: Advanced Reactors and Position Statement #47: Management of Surplus U.S. Nuclear Material.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed legislation that lifted the state’s de facto moratorium on new nuclear construction projects. (Photo: Office of Governor)

New Jersey has become the latest state to lift a moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants, with Gov. Mikie Sherrill signing new legislation Wednesday with the state’s two nuclear power plants serving as the backdrop.

The legislation, S. 3870/A. 4528, allows the commissioner of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to approve permits for the construction and operation of new nuclear facilities “based on safe, [Nuclear Regulatory Commission]–compliant waste storage.” Prior to this bill, New Jersey law practically banned such construction, because the state’s Coastal Area Facility Review Act required an approved method from the NRC for radioactive waste disposal that was outdated and could not be met.

The security drills held at commercial nuclear power plants as part of the Force-on-Force (FOF) inspection program will no longer be led by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The commissioners on Friday approved an overhaul of the security program, including phasing out NRC-led drills by 2028. Following the phaseout, drills will be led by the licensee, with the NRC observing.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has sunset its aircraft impact assessment rule for 2027, as NRC staff have addressed several of the public comments considered “significant and adverse” that prompted the agency this past winter to temporarily delay the sunsetting move.

The final rule, which was published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, addressed some of the more contentious concerns raised by the public. It sets a conditional sunset date of April 8, 2027, “unless the NRC determines that the cessation deadline should be extended to a date not more than 5 years in the future after offering the public an opportunity to provide input on the costs and benefits of this section and considering that input.”

Three years ago, the Texas Public Utility Commission launched the Advanced Nuclear Reactor Working Group at the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott. One year later, that new group issued a report recommending several actions to the Texas legislature that could be taken to attract new nuclear projects to the state.

Included in those recommendations were the foundation of a nonregulatory entity to coordinate Texas’s “strategic nuclear vision” along with an advanced nuclear fund to help “overcome the funding valley project developers face” in the state.

The White House is requesting $1.5 billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy in the fiscal year 2027 budget proposal, about 9 percent less than the previous year.

The request from the Trump administration is one of several associated with nuclear energy in the proposal, which was released Friday. Congress still must review and vote on the budget.

Nuclear reactor designs approved by the Department of Energy or Department of Defense could get streamlined pathways through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s commercial licensing process should applicants wish to push the technology into the civilian sector.

A proposed rule introduced April 2 by the NRC would “improve NRC licensing review efficiency, where applicable, by explicitly establishing by regulation an additional means for reactor applicants to demonstrate the safety functions of their reactor designs, and thus, would contribute to the safe and secure use and deployment of civilian nuclear energy technologies.”

Millstone’s two pressurized water reactors in Waterford, Conn., and Seabrook’s single PWR in Seabrook, N.H., are the only power reactors in operation in the New England region, with total capacities at Millstone and Seabrook of 2,122 and 1,248 Net MWe, respectively.

The region’s governors, though, may seek to expand these numbers. The governors of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont issued a joint statement in support of exploring next-generation nuclear energy technologies. The bipartisan announcement also urges continued support for local nuclear facilities like Millstone and Seabrook.