By Ho Nieh
We stand at a defining moment for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and for the future of nuclear energy in the U.S. American’s electricity demand is rising sharply due to artificial intelligence, data centers, and industrial growth, and our nation increasingly sees nuclear energy as essential to our energy security.
Thanks to the bipartisan support from Congress for the ADVANCE Act, followed by President Trump’s Executive Order 14300, “Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission,” we have been given a clear direction for modernization. In response, the NRC is making major structural changes in how we license and oversee nuclear facilities in the U.S. As America’s independent nuclear safety regulator, the NRC plays a vitally important role during this pivotal moment to enable and accelerate the safe and secure deployment of nuclear technologies.
For this new chapter, three things will not change.
Safety remains our top priority. Full stop. We exist to protect public health and safety, and the common defense and security. The NRC is not compromising safety for speed. The NRC is not a rubber stamp.
Second, our independence remains firm and enduring. We make and own our regulatory decisions.
Third, our people remain our greatest strength. Every day, the competent and dedicated NRC team delivers on a safety mission that is essential to America’s energy security and public trust in nuclear technologies.
Upon my return to the NRC after five years away, I see three differences that are paramount for the evolution of this agency. To begin, the NRC now operates under a new mission that emphasizes enabling along with safety.
A regulator that enables aligns our regulatory approaches with actual risks; it does not arbitrarily lower standards for safety. Enabling is anticipating future needs and adjusting our frameworks; it is not force-fitting new technologies into the status quo. Enabling is adding regulatory flexibilities that maintain safety; it is not preserving longstanding constraints that no longer provide a safety benefit. Enabling is a mindset; it is not a shortcut, but rather how we fulfill our safety commitment to the public in a changing world.
Secondly, the NRC senior leadership is more aligned than when I was last at the agency, that alignment has already produced meaningful results.
Lastly, the NRC’s interagency coordination is more visible. NRC’s independence does not mean isolation. We must coordinate with our federal partners. When it comes to achieving our national energy goals, the NRC is an integral part of Team USA. Greater coordination has given the NRC new perspectives and innovative ideas that enhance how we carry out our safety mission.
Taken together, these continuities and differences are producing impressive results. In the last year, we have prepared 18 Executive order14300 draft rulemakings; finalized Part 53 that creates a regulatory pathway for advanced nuclear reactors; issued the first commercial advanced reactor construction permit in decades; and approved, for the first time in history, a restart pathway for a reactor that was in the process of decommissioning. In addition, we have renewed 13 reactor licenses, approved innovative technologies, and accelerated fuel cycle licensing, while simultaneously launching a fusion regulatory framework.
We are making major reforms across our core business functions—rulemaking, licensing and oversight. The new frameworks we are building will set the standards for nuclear safety in America for decades to come. And what we do here in America will influence regulatory approaches around the world.
This is the kind of work that defines institutions. Few public servants get the opportunity to redesign an entire regulatory system. This is a once-in-a-career moment for the entire agency. Our success will enable safe nuclear energy for generations.
To meet this moment, I am focusing the agency on three priorities as Chairman.
The first priority: core mission delivery with safety, efficiency and speed. Our safety mission is our top priority, and we are focusing on what matters most for safety and security. We will achieve efficiency and speed not by rushing, but by removing the unnecessary things that slow us down and by focusing on what is most important to safety.
Next, leadership and operational excellence. Our regulatory performance will improve when leadership is aligned on expectations for excellence and accountability.
And third, sustainable performance through continuous improvement. Strong organizations do not stand still. They learn. They adjust. They invest in their people. They question themselves.
As an enabling regulator, we are not lowering our expectations for high performance—from ourselves and from those we regulate. Sustained safety and security performance across the industry is essential to public trust and to America’s nuclear energy future.
It is an exciting time for nuclear safety regulation. The American people can expect safety first, independence always, and discipline, efficiency, and timeliness in all we do.
The Honorable Ho Nieh was designated as the Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by U.S. President Donald Trump on January 8, 2026. Chairman Nieh had previously been sworn in as an NRC Commissioner on December 4, 2025 for a term ending June 30, 2029. He is the first former NRC resident inspector to serve as a Commissioner.
This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.
Honorable Ho Nieh: Visit the Columbia Generating Station and give the State of Washington politicians a kick in the butt. They produced a “Carbon” indulgence that collects lots of $$$ that they use to promote favored projects that have little or nothing to do with their climate change hysteria. I could “almost” support this funding source if 85% went to new nuclear facilities.
Eliminate the “Linear – No Threshold” radiation safety standard. It has no basis in observable fact because genetic damage at low radiation levels is demonstrably repaired by living organisms.
Collaborate with other agencies to curtail third-party (no skin in the game) lawsuits over radiation safety. No documented damage, no standing to sue. And advocate for losers in court to compensate NRC and other agencies for costs of legal defense.
If NRC is to facilitate the development of atomic energy (fission – not fusion) with measurable success in less than 10 years, it must actively campaign against obstructionist actions (in the courts and on the streets) that aim to actively cripple any progress.
As Low As Reasonably Achievable (ALARA) must be discarded as well. With LNT gone and ALARA gone, the NRC can focus its efforts where it matters most, on basic nuclear safety and on nuclear quality assurance.
ALARA is similar to BAT, Best Available Technology (from U.S. environmental regs). What is “Reasonably” and what is “Best?” Subjective criteria that ultimately become political, not scientific.
22GeologyJim,
Geology people have emerged as the group most resistant to bureaucratic nonsense since the invasion of the regulators 30 years ago. Thank you for your comment.
Sadly, some regulators will see Linear No Threshold LNT and possibly ALARA as hills to die on.
Resistance to eradicating these rules will be severe.
Yet neither has much, if any, justification in a logical world which aims to progress the best science possible.
What is really needed at NRC is a mandated attitude of making things go and not making things stop.
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Personally, I favor the belligerent action of seeking out, identifying, investigating – and where a case exists, prosecuting any person or organization who has hindered normal nuclear electricity progress to adoption. I see these campaigns to demonize nuclear as similar to theft. Proponents of hinderance have stolen from the public the right to enjoy the economies of nuclear electricity. They have offered nothing of value in return.
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BTW, I became involved in the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle in 1970, so I write with considerable experience and the advantage of having lived and worked in better times. Geoff S
Enable, I believe is what is being added. You obviously agree we need to enable.
Thank you, Chairman Nieh. That is very important work.
I’m fortunate to live just 13 miles from a nuclear power plant, so my home & computer are nuclear powered. I hope that in the future more Americans will enjoy that blessing.
This is a vast improvement over the days when the NRC was chaired by Harry Reid’s pet “physicist” or an unqualified geologist.
“Strong organizations do not stand still. They learn. They adjust. They invest in their people. They question themselves.”
Too bad the Trans-Reality Activists and so-called “climate science” organizations do not have that kind of creed, especially the part of questioning themselves, aka skepticism.
Continuous process improvement was highlighted. Excellent.
Until you get rid of the unscientific ‘linear no threshold’ rule for applying ‘radiation risk’ then NO amount of bureaucratic changes will do anything to speed up deployment of nuclear power. The idea that ANY amount of radiation is ‘bad’ undermines all efforts to build safe reliable cheap nuclear power.
I see no mention of doing away with ALARA and abandoning linear no threshold (LNT). Getting rid of those two rules is essential to progress.