May 24 (UPI) — President Donald Trump signed four executive orders to overhaul the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and hasten the process and deployment of new nuclear power reactors in the United States.
They allow agencies to build reactors on federally owned land, revamp the NRC, create new timelines for construction permits, and expand domestic uranium production and enrichment capabilities.
Trump on Friday signed the orders called: Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy, Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Deploying Advanced Nuclear Reactor Technologies for National Security and Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base.
Nuclear executives joined Trump, including Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez, who leads the largest operator of nuclear plants in the U.S.
Constellation wants to restart operations at Three Mile Island, aiming to bring the Unit 1 reactor back online in 2028. The Unit 2 reactor at Three Mile Island was the site of a partial meltdown in 1979.
“We’re wasting too much time on permitting and we’re answering silly questions, not the important ones,” the Constellation CEO said.
The agency is also reviewing whether to restart the mothballed Palisades plant in Michigan.
Dominguez said nuclear energy is best-suited to support artificial intelligence data center needs with consistent, around-the-clock service.
Between 1954 and 1978, the United States authorized construction of 133 civilian nuclear reactors at 81 power plants. Since 1978, the NRC has authorized a fraction of that number, and only two reactors have entered into commercial operation.
“Instead of efficiently promoting safe, abundant nuclear energy, the NRC has instead tried to insulate Americans from the most remote risks without appropriate regard for the severe domestic and geopolitical costs of such risk aversion,” according to one of the executive orders.
Former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, who now heads the Nuclear Threat Initiative and Energy Futures Initiative, said the moves could increase safety or security risks.
“Reorganizing and reducing the independence of the NRC could lead to the hasty deployment of advanced reactors with safety and security flaws,” Moniz, a nuclear physicist who served under President Barack Obama, said.
NRC overhaul
The 50-year-old independent NRC regulates nuclear reactors. The new executive order dictates reductions in force “though certain functions may increase in size consistent with the policies in this order, including those devoted to new reactor licensing.”
The NRC shall also create a team of at least 20 officials to draft the new regulations.
The order will not remove or replace any of the five commissioners who lead the body, according to the White House.
The NRC will work with the Department of Government Efficiency, the Office of Management and Budget, and other executive departments and agencies on the reorganization, according to the White House.
The public hearings process at the agency also will be streamlined, the executive order said.
New reactors
Trump’s orders also create a regulatory method for the departments of Energy and Defense to build nuclear reactors on federal land, the administration official said.
The commission will be required to decide on nuclear reactor licenses within 18 months and, within 60 days, the secretary of energy is expected to issue guidance on what counts as a qualified test reactor.
The order says that qualified test reactors can be safely operational at Department-owned or Department-controlled facilities within two years.
“Federal Government has effectively throttled the domestic deployment of advanced reactors, ceding the initiative to foreign nations in building this critical technology,” the order reads. “Our proud history of innovation has succumbed to overregulated complacency.”
Two new reactors that recently came online at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, Ga., took seven years longer than planned to build and came in $18 billion over budget.
The secretary of state is also expected to “aggressively pursue” at least 20 new agreements by the close of the 120th Congress “to enable the United States nuclear industry to access new markets in partner countries.”
“We’re also talking about the big plants — the very, very big, the biggest,” Trump said at the signing. “We’re going to be doing them also.”
Other changes
Another of the orders Trump signed seeks to fully leverage federally owned uranium and plutonium resources declared excess to defense needs.
Trump also wants a pilot program for reactor construction and operation outside the National Laboratories.
Within 240 days, the agencies are expected to develop management of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste, and deployment of advanced fuel cycle capabilities “to establish a safe, secure, and sustainable long-term fuel cycle,” according to the order.
Additionally, the order directs the Department of Education to work toward increasing participation in nuclear energy-related apprenticeships and career and technical education programs.
