NRC proposes rule package for existing reactors and new applicants

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced on September 11, 2026 a proposed rule it calls a broad overhaul of its regulations for reactor licensing and oversight, according to the agency's release, No. 26-077. The proposal sits in docket NRC-2025-1138 and would apply, the release says, to both existing nuclear power plants and new reactor applicants; comments will run for 30 days after the rule is published in the Federal Register, which as of September 11 it had not been. The NRC's rulemaking tracker lists the entry as "Regulatory Enhancements for Reactor Licensing, Decommissioning, and Operational Oversight," RIN 3150-AL45, and estimates publication on September 25, 2026.

The release frames the rule as part of the agency's implementation of Executive Order 14300 and says the changes would eliminate outdated requirements, increase regulatory flexibility, and use more risk-informed approaches. "This major modernization of the NRC's reactor regulations replaces outdated requirements with smarter, risk-informed approaches that reflect today's technologies, knowledge and operating experience," NRC Chairman Ho K. Nieh said in the release.

The release lists ten things the proposal would do "among other things." Two are concrete enough to read against the current rulebook. One bullet reads "Remove the expiration date for standard design approvals"; those approvals, under 10 CFR 52.147, are valid for 15 years and "may not be renewed." Another reads "Update requirements for reporting nonemergency events at nuclear power plants"; the tracker's abstract puts it as revising "nonemergency event reporting requirements for power reactors," the territory of 10 CFR 50.73, which gives licensees 60 days to file a Licensee Event Report. The rest of the list is a more risk-informed, graded approach to earthquake design requirements, flexibility for licensing control-room staff, changes to how the NRC sets new or revised requirements for existing facilities, clarified defect and noncompliance reporting, financial qualification requirements aligned with the Part 53 framework, less routine reporting and recordkeeping, a refined way for new applicants to address issues affecting operating reactors generally, and clarified decommissioning requirements "including use of decommissioning trust funds." The release gives no rule text, and no page counts, cost estimates, or examples.

The tracking data behind the NRC's Rules and Petitions page fills in some of what the release leaves out. The entry's affected-parts field names 10 CFR Parts 20, 21, 50, 52, 53, 55, 70, 72 and 75; its abstract restates the scope as "revisions to 10 CFR Parts 20, 21, 50, 52, 55, 70, 72, and 75," without Part 53, and describes "rescission of certain design certification requirements" and "incorporation of interpretive rulemaking and guidance updates related to backfitting and decommissioning." The rulemaking was initiated July 23, 2025, is marked "Funded," scores 20 on the agency's prioritization scale, its "High" tier, and carries an estimated final-rule date of March 31, 2027. The NRC's Executive Order 14300 and ADVANCE Act page, updated September 11, says there are "no pre-publication versions of NRC proposed rules at this time," and the docket number in the release did not yet return a docket on regulations.gov on the afternoon of September 11.

Where the wholesale revision stands

The new package follows an earlier reactor package proposed under the order in July. "Modernizing Reactor Licensing, Safety Oversight, and Siting Practices," docket NRC-2025-0975, was published July 16, 2026 at 91 FR 44560, touching Parts 2, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 71 and 100, with comments that closed August 31; its abstract says it addresses sections 5(f), 5(h) and 5(i) of the order "and additional items that contribute to adding additional generation to the electrical grid." The new package's affected-parts field overlaps it on Parts 50 and 52, and on Part 53 if the field rather than the abstract is right, and adds the radiation-protection, defect-reporting, operator-licensing, special-nuclear-material, spent-fuel-storage and safeguards parts.

Executive Order 14300, signed May 23, 2025, directs the NRC to "undertake a review and wholesale revision of its regulations and guidance documents," with notices of proposed rulemaking within 9 months and final rules within 18 months of the order: February 23, 2026 and November 23, 2026. The tracker's estimated Federal Register date for this proposal is seven months past the first mark, and its March 31, 2027 final-rule estimate is more than four months past the second. It is not alone: of the 22 entries in the tracker whose titles carry the order's number, 16 list final-rule dates in 2027, the latest October 1, 2027, for a rule on federal financial assistance.

The tracker's estimates can also run early. The in-situ uranium recovery rule The Duck Curve covered when it was announced September 1 had a tracker estimate of September 24 for Federal Register publication; it appeared September 10 at 91 FR 57728, with comments due October 13, 2026.

Outlook

If the September 25 estimate holds, the 30-day comment window on the reactor package would close in late October 2026, with the virtual public meeting the release promises somewhere inside it. The text is what will settle what "certain design certification requirements" are being rescinded, and whether removing the 15-year clock on standard design approvals reaches back to approvals already issued. And the arithmetic in the tracker suggests the order's November 23, 2026 deadline for final rules will pass with most of the set still open, unless the estimates move the way the ISR rule's did.