The NRC has released an overview of its most significant agency reorganization since 1987. The effort is “designed to streamline decision-making, consolidate functions, and enhance alignment with national priorities for the safe and efficient deployment of innovative nuclear technologies.” This part of the reorganization, which addresses offices reporting to the Executive Director for Operations (EDO), is the latest NRC effort to implement Executive Order 14300, Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, issued in May 2025.
Section 4 of the executive order directs the NRC to “reorganize . . . to promote the expeditious processing of license applications and the adoption of innovative technology.” The reorganization is broadly arranged to reflect the agency’s business lines, as reflected in its budget.
Key Takeaways
While the NRC has provided only brief discussion of the changes, the reorganization speaks for itself and solidifies the agency’s focus on licensing activities, consistent with the administration’s priorities.
The reorganization demonstrates the NRC’s commitment to streamline, slim down, and prioritize its oversight and enforcement processes on the most safety- and security-significant issues.
The Details
Certain aspects of the NRC’s organization are governed by statute. Section 2(b)(3) of Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1980 (the Reorganization Plan) requires proposals for the reorganization of major Commission offices to be proposed by the EDO, through the Chairman, and approved by the Commission.
Further, the NRC’s key offices and their enumerated responsibilities (statutory duties) are established by statute and cannot be abolished without legislative change. A major NRC reorganization must account for those statutory offices and statutory duties, and in some cases statutory officers.
New Office of Advanced Reactors
The NRC will establish a new Office of Advanced Reactors (OAR) associated with the new reactors business line. The office will “promote the expeditious review of advanced reactor applications to facilitate deployment of innovative technology.” The OAR Director is appointed by the Commission.
The organizational chart provides little detail, but appears to also include the technical resources necessary to support licensing in the Divisions of Advanced Reactor Engineering and Advanced Reactor Science. Environmental reviews are supported by a branch in the Division of Advanced Reactor Programs.
By placing all, or most, licensing resources within a single office, review schedules can be more efficiently managed. OAR also will handle construction inspection of these reactors. Upon commencement of commercial operation, licensing and oversight will transition to other offices.
The idea of a separate office focused on new and advanced reactors is not novel: the NRC previously established the Office of New Reactors (NRO) to perform new reactor licensing in 2006 following the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and an increase in the new reactor licensing workload. The NRO was later merged back into the Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation in 2016 following changes in the economy and the domestic energy sector, including a decline in natural gas prices.
Changes to Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation
The Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) is a statutory office established by Section 203 of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 (ERA). Section 203 specifies that the NRR Director (a statutory officer) is appointed by the Commission. NRR will continue to handle its current duties under the operating reactors business line, including operating reactor license renewals, power uprates, nonpower reactor licensing (as well as oversight and operator licensing for nonpower reactors), and license amendments.
NRR will perform most of the functions currently performed by the Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response (NSIR) in two divisions (Emergency Preparedness and Response and Security Programs), and NSIR will be dissolved. NSIR was created in 2002 following a comprehensive review of the agency’s safeguards and physical security program following the events of September 11, 2001. This work includes statutory duties performed principally by NRR and NMSS that had been centralized in NSIR at the time of its establishment.
The Environmental Center of Expertise will be dissolved and its resources distributed across NRR, OAR, and the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards (NMSS). NRR will retain environmental policy development. This realignment is consistent with streamlined National Environmental Policy Act review processes already implemented pursuant to the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Further changes to the environmental review scheme are anticipated later this year.
Changes to NMSS
NMSS is a statutory office established by ERA Section 204. Like NRR, its director is a Commission-appointed statutory officer. NMSS houses the work of four materials and fuel cycle business lines: spent fuel storage and transportation, nuclear materials users, decommissioning and low-level waste, and fuel facilities. Regional staff performing these functions will report to NMSS as opposed to the regions.
The Rulemaking and Financial Centers of Expertise will continue to be housed in NMSS.
Changes to Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research
The Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research (RES) is a statutory office established by ERA Section 205. The RES Director is a Commission-appointed statutory officer. The reorganization characterizes RES as a support office; its work is not consolidated with a particular business line. RES’s statutory duties allow the Commission broad latitude in determining research priorities.
These include, as specified in ERA Section 205(b), developing recommendations for research determined to be necessary by the Commission in the performance of the NRC’s licensing and regulatory functions and engaging in or contracting for such research. The NRC observes that the agency’s research program will be “right-sized” and leverage related work, including that performed by the US Department of Energy through the national laboratories.
The agency’s technical training functions, including management of the Technical Training Center and Nuclear Reactor Apprenticeship Network, will be moved to RES from the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO).
New Office of the Chief Nuclear Reactor Inspector
The NRC will establish a new Office of the Chief Nuclear Reactor Inspector (CNRI). The CNRI will lead implementation of the oversight functions that fall into the agency’s operating reactor business line. Key changes include:
- The four Regional Administrators, who currently report to the Deputy Executive Director for Reactors, will report to the CNRI Director. The Regional Administrators’ span of control will be reduced to include only reactor oversight—routine decisions will be made at the regional level, while “higher-level” decisions will be made at the office level to ensure consistency and predictability across the reactor oversight program. (As noted above, responsibility for the materials program licenses that are not under Agreement States will shift to NMSS.) This shift reflects the sharpening of the agency’s inspection focus to those issues most critical to safety and security as inspection resources decline (our post on recent changes to the baseline inspection program discusses these programmatic changes). The regions are not statutory offices, although the inspection function is a statutory duty.
- The Office of Enforcement (OE) will no longer be a standalone office. Enforcement and allegations staff will move to either NMSS or within CNRI. Programmatic oversight will be housed in a branch of CNRI under a new Division of Oversight and Compliance Programs. It is not clear where in the program offices day-to-day enforcement duties will be housed. The NRC acknowledges that some efficiencies are lost without a centralized OE but observes that “strong oversight will maintain consistency.” This change reflects the agency’s shift in focus and resources to licensing.
- The Office of Investigations (OI) will see its work transferred to a new Division of Investigations. OI conducts and supervises investigations of allegations of wrongdoing by persons or entities within NRC jurisdiction; the office was established in 1982 and is a successor (as is OE) to the historical Office of Inspection and Enforcement. The division will provide services across the enterprise to NRR, NMSS, and OAR.
- CNRI will implement the security and safeguards inspection functions currently performed by NSIR.
Consolidation Efforts in Support Offices
The NRC is consolidating functions carried out under the corporate support business line. This effort supports compliance with the corporate support cap in Section 503 of the ADVANCE Act, “Commission Corporate Support Funding.” Under the cap, no more than 30% of the NRC’s total budget can be spent on internal support functions.
OCHCO will continue to manage the agency’s human capital functions. The agency is dissolving the Office of Administration. The duties of the Office of Administration’s Division of Facilities and Security, which include internally facing functions such as personnel security and facilities management, will be administered by OCHCO.
The Office of the Chief Information Officer, which has responsibility over information technology and information management (including Freedom of Information Act and Paperwork Reduction Act compliance) will consolidate additional responsibilities in these areas that are currently dispersed across the agency.
The NRC expects to implement the reorganization by mid-summer, and additional organizational changes will be made in the Commission-reporting offices that do not report through the EDO (e.g., the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Office of the General Counsel, Office of International Programs).
How We Can Help
Our team stands ready to assist licensees, applicants, and prospective applicants as they navigate fast-moving changes at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, with more expected in the coming weeks and months. We continue to monitor changes to the US administration’s energy policy and will continue to provide analysis and guidance as changes are implemented.
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