DOE posts notice revising 10 CFR Part 851 to enable advanced-reactor testing

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy posted a Federal Register public-inspection notice on February 26, 2026 that reopens public comment on a January 21, 2026 notice of proposed rulemaking to amend 10 CFR Part 851, the Worker Safety and Health Program. The action, recorded as Document Number 2026‑03866 and cited at 91 FR 9498, sets a new comment close date of March 23, 2026 and identifies the docket as DOE‑HQ‑2025‑0243 with RIN 1901‑AB74.

The underlying NOPR was originally published January 21, 2026 and is referenced in the FRN as 91 FR 2498. The Federal Register supplemental language explains the proposal’s aim: "The proposal sought to revise these regulations to enable DOE to expedite the review, approval, and deployment of advanced reactors under DOE's jurisdiction, including qualified test reactors in DOE's reactor pilot program." The FRN lists pages 9498–9499 and shows an Effective Date entry of 2026‑01‑21 tied to the NOPR metadata.

Federal Register procedural text supplied in the public‑inspection notice restates the reopened timeline: "The comment period for the NOPR published on January 21, 2026 (91 FR 2498) is reopened. Written comments, data and information regarding the NOPR will be accepted on or before March 23, 2026." Nuclear News summarized DOE’s stated rationale and quoted the agency describing the benefits as "increased flexibility, streamlined processes, cost savings, enhanced agility, and improved worker engagement." Nuclear News also provided a submission route identifier: document ID DOE_FRDOC_0001‑5304 for the federal rulemaking portal.

The notice explicitly ties the Part 851 proposal to Executive Order 14301, Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy, issued May 23, 2025 and cited at 90 FR 22591. The FRN’s supplementary information repeats that consistency with EO 14301 is a stated objective while confirming the proposal would affect worker safety and health regulations contained in 10 CFR Part 851.

What the posted materials do not include is the precise regulatory text for the Part 851 amendments. The supplied excerpts contain the NOPR description, docket identifiers and the FRN reopening language but do not reproduce specific subsection edits, definitions or compliance provisions. The record in the February 26 public‑inspection notice therefore documents intent and procedure without publishing exact rule language.

Timeline reconciliations in the notice clarify that the original NOPR comment deadline was February 20, 2026, and that DOE later reopened the record on February 26 to extend comments through March 23, 2026. The action is cataloged as a Proposed Rule in the Federal Register entry 91 FR 9498, and the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy remains the issuing authority listed in the FRN.

With the reopened docket DOE‑HQ‑2025‑0243 and RIN 1901‑AB74 on the Federal Register record, stakeholders now have until March 23, 2026 to supply written comments on a proposal DOE frames as enabling faster testing and deployment of advanced reactors under its Reactor Pilot Program, while the precise regulatory amendments remain to be published.