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2026 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 15–18, 2026
Phoenix, AZ|Arizona Grand Resort & Spa
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What’s reshaping nuclear licensing and compliance today?
Mark Reidmeyer
It is the convergence of urgency, innovation, and modernization that is reshaping nuclear licensing and compliance today.
For decades, nuclear licensing operated in a relatively stable environment built around large light water reactors, predictable review cycles, and well-established regulatory pathways. Today, that model is evolving rapidly. Advanced reactors, AI-enabled tools, digital engineering platforms, grid reliability concerns, and aggressive decarbonization goals are all pushing the industry—and regulators—to move faster and think differently.
The RARCC is responsible for the preparation and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards for the design, operation, maintenance, operator selection and training, and quality requirements for current and future research and test reactors including pulsed critical facilities, reactors used for the production of isotopes for industrial, educational, and medical purposes and current and advanced non-large LWRs. The scope includes but is not limited to: water-cooled and non-water cooled Small Modular Reactors, Generation III+ and IV reactors, and future non-light water cooled/moderated large commercial reactors.
The RARCC standards include but are not limited to the design and operation of the nuclear island, the balance of plant, and other systems within the plant boundary affecting safety and operations. The ANS Standards Committee Procedures Manual for Consensus Committees shall be used to guide the activities of this consensus committee.
If you are interested in participating in the following standards, complete and submit the Standards Volunteer Form.
The RARCC oversees the following 3 subcommittees: