To see some of the most dramatic changes happening in the federal government, look at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The usually sleepy agency is not known for its friendliness toward innovation, yet its members recently voted to establish a new licensing regime that could dramatically speed the development of advanced nuclear power.
The United States built the world’s largest fleet of reactors. Despite that technological feat, however, the U.S. nuclear industry has been frozen in time: Almost all its commercial reactors were built decades ago, and all of them use the same light-water-cooled technology, even though more efficient designs have been available for years — and operate commercially in China.
U.S. investors, eager to shake up the industry, have poured billions into advanced nuclear designs. That includes many tech companies looking to power the artificial intelligence boom, such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon, which was founded by Post owner Jeff Bezos.
They’re looking to build reactors that use liquid metals such as sodium or gases as coolants, allowing them to operate at higher temperatures. Those designs not only reduce waste but are also safer, since they benefit from natural forces like gravity and convection — as opposed to pumps or motors — to automatically stop the reactor if something goes wrong.
The NRC’s byzantine review process, however, was built around light-water-cooled reactors, including prescriptive safety requirements specific to those designs, which make no sense for more advanced technology. That slows down approvals for advanced reactors, requiring applicants to seek time-consuming exemptions and costly workarounds.
The agency’s new regulatory framework, called Part 53, is designed to be more technology neutral. It adopts a new way to assess risk that provides more flexibility for developers. For instance, nuclear plant designs that are smaller and more automated will require less staff. The new rules also allow safer reactors to be built in more densely populated areas. And the framework makes it easier to deploy previously approved designs, allowing companies to scale successful projects.
The agency hopes the change will reduce review times, which can often drag on for years, to 18 months or less. Opponents of nuclear energy will no doubt see this as evidence that the Trump administration is turning the NRC into a rubber stamp. But many of these reforms are rooted in the Advance Act, which sailed through Congress on a bipartisan basis and was signed into law by President Joe Biden. Efforts to improve the NRC’s risk-assessment strategies date to the mid-2000s.
Whether these advanced reactors become commercially successful remains to be seen. But given their immense promise, it’s to everyone’s benefit that the government has trimmed some of the red tape holding them back.
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