President Donald Trump has signed the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act, whose purpose is to modernize the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s functions by establishing a new budget and fee structure and developing a revised licensing framework for advanced nuclear reactors.
“This legislation establishes a more equitable and transparent funding structure which will benefit all operating reactors and future licensees,” said Maria Korsnick, president and CEO of the U.S. Nuclear Energy Institute. “The bill also reaffirms Congress’s support for nuclear innovation by working to establish an efficient and stable regulatory structure that is prepared to license the advanced reactors of the future.”
The law establishes new NRC budget and fee structures and a revised licensing framework for advanced next generation nuclear reactors. And it also directs the NRC to look at ways of improving the efficiency of uranium licensing, including investigating the safety and feasibility of extending uranium recovery licenses from 10 to 20 years’ duration, and directs the Department of Energy to issue at least every 10 years a long-term plan detailing the management of its excess uranium inventories.