NRC making changes to mandatory hearings timeline

Mandatory hearings conducted as part of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission reactor licensing review will be held much sooner in the process, the agency announced Tuesday.

A provision states that uncontested hearings must be held at some point after 30 days of an application being docketed. Historically, the NRC has conducted these toward the end of its review of applications for construction permits, early site permits, and combined licenses. The change announced this week would have hearings be held sooner, about 30 days after an application is docketed.

Further context: NRC officials believe holding these hearings at the beginning of the licensing process will refocus them on public engagement and the exchange of information, rather than the current format where the public can review technical work that is already at or near its completion.

"This approach will better realize an aim identified in the 1957 Joint Committee on Atomic Energy study of [Atomic Energy Commission] procedures: to allow members of the public to provide views early in the process without the encumbrances of seeking a contested hearing," the Federal Register notice reads. "This approach will also reallocate the significant NRC staff and Commission resources currently dedicated to mandatory hearings held at the conclusion of the NRC staff's review to focus those resources instead on the timely completion of comprehensive safety, security, and environmental reviews."

According to NRC officials, these changes align with the ADVANCE Act and requirements set forth in Executive Order 14300 to accelerate and modernize the reactor licensing process.

The provisions regarding uncontested hearings date back to the 1950s, a time when commercial nuclear power and the AEC were in their infancy and community/stakeholder engagement was not as accessible.

Over the years, the NRC has shown interest in reforming the mandatory hearing process. In 2024, for instance, then NRC Chairman Christopher Hanson directed the agency's general counsel to give the process "a fresh look" and identify efficiencies.

In a news release this week, NRC Chairman Ho Nieh added, "By holding [hearings] earlier in the review process, we can give the public greater visibility into licensing decisions while improving the effectiveness of the process."

Additional details: The changes will delegate the authority to conduct mandatory hearings to the NRC's executive director of operations, who can further delegate this authority to the appropriate office director. The mandatory hearing will be held in a public hearing style format and somewhere as close to the proposed site as possible but should generally not be held at a facility belonging to the licensee, applicant, or contractor.

These changes will immediately apply to reactor applications already under review, as well as future reactor applications, the NRC said. However, they will not apply to contested hearings, the legal process of formally challenging license applications.

Meanwhile, a separate rule that went into effect in April removes certain hearing requirements not mandated by the Atomic Energy Act and clarifies that references to hearings in the NRC's regulations apply to contested hearings and not uncontested mandatory hearings.