NRC's proposed reactor rule published; comments due November 9

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's proposed rule "Regulatory Enhancements for Reactor Licensing, Decommissioning, and Operational Oversight" was published in the Federal Register on September 24, 2026, at 91 FR 60702, in docket NRC-2025-1138 under RIN 3150-AL45. The notice runs 89 pages, proposes amendments to 10 CFR Parts 20, 21, 50, 52, 53, 55, 70, 72 and 75, and sets comments to close at 11:59 p.m. eastern time on November 9, 2026. That is 46 days after publication; the NRC's September 11 release announcing the package said comments could be submitted for 30 days after publication, as The Duck Curve reported at the time.

The executive summary says the major provisions "include" changes in fifteen lettered areas: Part 21 defect-reporting clarifications; nonemergency event reporting at nuclear power plants; decommissioning licensing; financial qualifications and decommissioning trust fund use; risk-informed seismic design; probabilistic risk assessment requirements; backfitting and issue finality; notification of initial fuel load; evaluation of generic issues and operating experience; standard design approvals; environmental reviews of early site permits; post-TMI requirements; operator licensing; IAEA notifications; and recordkeeping and reporting. The discussion section adds a block of corrective updates outside those headings, among them an OMB control number, "Website" to "website" and "https" in weblinks across the applicable parts. Eight revised draft guidance documents are out for comment on the same docket and deadline.

On the question the September 11 release left open, the text answers: for standard design approvals (SDAs), which now expire 15 years after issuance, it would amend 10 CFR 52.147 and 53.1218 "to remove the expiration date for SDAs," and it states that the elimination "would not modify existing SDAs as it would apply to the future issuance of SDAs by the NRC." In the operator-licensing area, a facility licensee could set the minimum number of control manipulations for trainees under its Commission-approved training program in place of the current requirement of at least five significant control manipulations that affect reactivity or power level, and operator licenses issued in future would carry no expiration date, with the renewal requirement eliminated; current licenses keep their dates.

The NRC's draft regulatory analysis, ADAMS accession ML26191A071, concludes that the rule and its associated draft guidance would produce net averted costs to industry and the agency over 30 years of $311 million at a 7 percent discount rate to $411 million at 3 percent. The Federal Register document says the NRC "may conduct a public meeting" and that, if it determines it will hold one, it will publish the location, time and agenda on its public meeting website within 10 calendar days of the meeting; the September 11 release had said staff will hold a virtual public meeting during the comment period.