WASHINGTON — Federal efforts to accelerate nuclear energy development are starting to pay off, government and industry experts say, as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission works through mandated updates to licensing processes and its mission.

The commission is responding to two actions: a 2024 law directing the NRC to develop processes that expedite the review and licensing of nuclear reactors and fuels, and a series of executive orders on nuclear energy from President Donald Trump almost a year ago, including one ordering structural and cultural changes at the NRC.

In the past month, new NRC Chairman Ho Nieh has made the rounds on the Hill and elsewhere to describe a “sea change” within the agency that he says will enable increased efficiency in nuclear energy development without losing focus on safety issues.

“Enabling is really a mindset,” Nieh told the House Energy and Commerce Energy Subcommittee on April 22. “It’s not a shortcut. It’s not a compromise. It’s just how we fulfill our safety authorities to benefit the American people.”

At the same time, Nieh said, the NRC’s new approach is about “adapting to new technologies” and “not force-fitting old technologies into old frameworks.”

That strategy is already showing results, industry experts say.

“The proof is in the pudding,” U.S. Nuclear Industry Council President and CEO Todd Abrajano said in an interview. “We’re starting to see companies actually not only just make it through the regulatory process, but make it through the process much more quickly and much more efficiently.”

New rules for new technologies

The commission mandates include updates to licensing and regulatory frameworks to speed the timeline for decisions on reactor designs — historically a lengthy and expensive process that industry insiders say has inhibited nuclear power from expanding.

But recent rulemakings from the commission have focused on matching its licensing processes with newer technologies.

“Innovators are coming to the market with new designs, so we are not going to be an impediment to innovation,” Nieh told reporters during a recent roundtable. “We’re trying to adapt our frameworks as the energy landscape adapts.”

In addition to requiring change at the NRC, the 2024 law known as the ADVANCE Act and the president’s executive orders pushed deployment of small modular reactors for commercial use. Those compact, next-generation reactors are much smaller than traditional light-water reactors and include more passive safety features.

The introduction of those newer technologies have been part of a “real resurgence,” within the nuclear energy industry, Abrajano said, with more than 100 reactor designs in the works competing for a chance to produce power around the world.

“We’re sort of at an inflection point,” he said. “We’re at the point where customers are starting to make decisions. They’re starting to actually place orders. And so at this point, I think we’re coming to a point where we’re going to start to figure out who potentially the winners and the losers might be.”

Nieh, who became NRC’s chairman in January, emphasizes that the commission’s focus should be on safety, but has spoken at length about the need to expand nuclear power to address growing demands for energy and related security issues.

To that end, he says the NRC can help provide regulatory certainty for industry. At the same time, he says, the commission’s role is “not for us to choose which technology society ultimately deploys.”

“If there’s a need for it, and if there’s a market for it, and there’s a design that’s viable for licensing, we are going to have the framework ready to produce a safety decision so that America can benefit from it,” he said at the reporter roundtable.

As companies try to take those technologies to market, the regulatory process they need to move through looks different than in years past.

“Barriers have come down, and certainly that regulatory portion of that is a big, big reason why,” Abrajano said. “The pathway to figure out how to make it through the NRC process in a timely and cost-effective manner is much easier today than it was even three to four years ago.”

Abrajano also noted the influence of administrative efforts to increase cooperation between the NRC and the Energy and Defense departments, especially with the introduction of pilot programs to help develop new designs.

One DOE pilot program aims to help accelerate reactor development by using department authorization to test reactors at federal sites while the designs are still in the testing phase. The department’s Office of Nuclear Energy has said it expects several reactors to achieve criticality — a self-sustaining nuclear reaction — by July 4.

Still, Abrajano said the driving force behind the NRC change came from Congress.

“If you take a look at the ADVANCE Act, there’s a stipulation in that legislation to rewrite the NRC’s mission statement — which they’ve done,” he said. “So, for the first time ever, it talks about actually enabling the industry while maintaining their sort of safety priority.”

“And I think that’s really the bigger thing to look at here is the shift in the culture from the top down,” Abrajano added.

In late March, the commission finalized a rulemaking for Part 53 — a reactor licensing pathway for advanced reactors. That rulemaking was the first new set of regulations issued by the commission since 1989, the NRC said in a press release.

“Part 53 introduces technology-inclusive safety standards, increased flexibility for reactor design and operation based on risk analyses, graded security requirements, and innovative features to accelerate reactor deployment,” the commission said.

“The improvements are expected to reduce unnecessary duplication in reviews, allow developers to complete licensing in stages, establish clearer, more predictable pathways to approval, and could significantly reduce the time and cost required to bring new reactors online,” according to the press release.

The proposal for another rulemaking, Part 57, was introduced in recent weeks to address microreactors — another development that Chairman Nieh told reporters would help address “volume and scale” for new technologies.

The commission also is working to get reactor reviews for designs undergoing DOE and Defense Department demonstrations “streamlined” by using some of the other departments’ review data.

Congressional oversight

Members of Congress have been monitoring progress in the industry and the NRC since passage of the ADVANCE Act and release of the May 2025 executive orders.

Recent budget hearings have quickly morphed into discussions about commission changes.

The acceleration of nuclear power has seen largely bipartisan support in Congress, in particular with overwhelmingly favorable final votes in both the House and Senate on the ADVANCE Act.

Many Democrats have expressed optimism — though sometimes cautiously — about the opportunities an accelerated approval process could afford.

During a reporter roundtable, Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., said he didn’t want to see the NRC “be obstructionist” and could get behind an enabling mindset “as long as they’re thoughtful and deliberate in how they want to enable.”

Even so, some Democrats raised concerns during the April 22 House subcommittee hearing about the potential influence of DOE, DOD and the Trump administration more broadly on the commission’s work.

Energy Subcommittee ranking member Kathy Castor, D-Fla., argued the commission’s independence was being undermined by the president — citing his firing of former Commissioner Chris Hanson, the executive orders, workforce reductions and reports of interference from the Department of Government Efficiency.

“We can’t pretend that this is business as usual,” Castor said.

Republicans have, at times, expressed more emphatic support for changes happening within the commission.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said in an interview that “a lot of progress has been made already at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.” She said that progress included both personnel changes and attitude changes.

“The first four years I was in the Senate, the attitude at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was say no to everything — slow down everything. And so that attitude has changed tremendously,” she said.

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—David Jordan contributed to this report.

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