NRC proposes sweeping security rule changes for advanced reactors
The NRC moved to replace decades-old security rules with a performance-based framework that could ease licensing for advanced reactors and digital systems.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission moved to replace decades-old security and fitness-for-duty rules with a performance-based framework that reaches power reactors, materials sites, spent fuel storage and future advanced reactor designs. Published in the Federal Register on June 26 under docket NRC-2025-1303 and RIN 3150-AL53, the proposal keeps the agency’s core test in place: maintain reasonable assurance of safety and security while cutting obsolete burden where it makes sense.
It would revise 10 CFR Parts 26, 50, 52, 72, 73 and 95, and it pulls together fitness-for-duty programs, drug and alcohol testing, fatigue management, physical security, access authorization, safeguards, information handling, event notifications and training. For operators, the biggest practical change is the move away from rigid prescriptions and toward risk-informed criteria that can fit different facility types, including independent spent fuel storage installations.
The proposal is meant to modernize security and fitness-for-duty requirements, reduce regulatory burden where appropriate and still preserve security. Chairman Ho K. Nieh put the point bluntly, saying the agency’s rules had reflected “the threats and technologies of the past rather than the realities of today.” The new framework creates regulatory options for new reactor designs and digital systems, and allows more flexible drug and alcohol testing methods.
The proposal landed after the commission’s June 23 announcement and in the middle of a broader rewrite ordered by Executive Order 14300, signed on May 23, 2025. That order directed the NRC to undertake a wholesale revision of its regulations and guidance, with proposed rulemakings within nine months and final rules within 18 months. Executive Order 14300 says the United States authorized 133 civilian reactors between 1954 and 1978, but only two reactors authorized since 1978 entered commercial operation.
A public meeting on the proposal is expected soon, and comments are due by July 27, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, with Nicole Fields and Shyrl Coker listed as contacts.
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