WASHINGTON, D.C.—The U.S. nuclear industry provided four key recommendations to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission detailing how it can streamline licensing of advanced reactors to ensure American leadership in nuclear energy.

Developed by NEI in partnership with the Nuclear Innovation Alliance and the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council, the white paper, "Ensuring the Future of U.S. Nuclear Energy: Creating a Streamlined and Predictable Licensing Pathway to Deployment," outlines the necessary steps to support innovation, commercialization and deployment of new nuclear technology. 

The report notes while the United States remains the leader in nuclear energy, with the world’s largest and best-run fleet, “this technology leadership is at risk without licensing modernization.” While 50 reactors are under construction worldwide, we are only building two in the United States.

To ensure we can still develop and build advanced reactors, the groups offered the following near-term objectives:

• reversing the trend of increasing regulatory costs and excessively long reviews
• aligning the regulatory framework for advanced reactors with their inherent enhanced safety
• defining licensing options clearly, including options for staged applications and approval
• providing additional flexibility for changes during construction.