Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The order directs the NRC to reorganize its structure and undergo workforce reductions in consultation with its DOGE Team, and to create a dedicated team of at least 20 officials to draft new regulations. It redefines the NRC's statutory mission to explicitly include facilitating nuclear power deployment alongside reactor safety. It scales back the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards to the minimum required by law. The NRC must issue proposed rules within 9 months and final rules within 18 months of signing, covering binding licensing deadlines (18 months maximum for new reactors, 1 year for existing reactors), with NRC hourly fees capped to enforce those timelines.

The regulatory overhaul must also reconsider the linear no-threshold radiation model, establish expedited pathways for reactor designs already tested by DOD or DOE, create high-volume licensing processes for microreactors and modular reactors, revise environmental review rules under NEPA, limit design-change demands once construction begins, streamline public hearings, and reconsider the duration of renewed operating licenses. The order does not itself change any NRC regulation; all substantive rule changes require the rulemaking process it sets in motion.

NRC employees facing reorganization and potential workforce reductions; companies and developers applying to build, operate, or extend nuclear reactors; the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards; DOD, DOE, EPA, and the Council on Environmental Quality, which are directed to consult on specific regulatory reforms; and communities near nuclear facilities subject to revised safety and environmental standards.

Nuclear developers and utilities would face faster, capped licensing timelines and lower regulatory costs if the mandated rules take effect. The NRC's internal workforce and the ACRS face immediate restructuring. Revised radiation standards and expedited pathways for DOD/DOE-tested designs could reshape the economics of new nuclear construction across the country.

The NRC reorganizes first — in consultation with its DOGE Team — then a dedicated 20-person drafting team writes new regulations. Proposed rules must be published within 9 months and finalized within 18 months. The new rules must set binding licensing deadlines enforced by hard caps on hourly fee recovery, meaning NRC loses its billing authority if it misses its own deadlines. DOD, DOE, EPA, and the Council on Environmental Quality are assigned consulting roles on specific regulatory questions. The ACRS is immediately reduced to its statutory floor, narrowing its review to truly novel issues.