Up & Atom

The NRC’s Office of Investigations recently published its Annual Report for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025, summarizing its activities from October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025. In FY 2025, OI opened 90 cases, a 9% increase from FY 2024. But OI also increased the number of case closures, closing 98 cases in FY 2025––a 20% increase from FY 2024. While investigations into alleged discrimination (i.e., alleged retaliation against nuclear whistleblowers) increased, the number of such investigations remained well below prepandemic levels. Further, an overall trend of increasing investigations of materials licensees continued into 2025.

The NRC has issued a Federal Register notice confirming the January 8, 2026 effective date of its direct final rule implementing the requirements of Executive Order 14270, Zero-Based Regulatory Budgeting to Unleash American Energy. The direct final rule sets conditional sunset dates for several identified NRC regulations, meaning those rules will automatically expire one year after the rule’s effective date (i.e., January 8, 2027).

The NRC saw major staffing transitions in 2025, including an unprecedented number of vacancies at the senior staff level. As 2026 kicks off, the Commission has returned to a full slate of five, and the agency has filled significant senior leadership roles.

President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order directing the reclassification of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). This reclassification, along with the growing number of states that allow medical and recreational marijuana use, further complicates the legal landscape surrounding marijuana for NRC-regulated entities required to maintain a fitness-for-duty program.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently released Draft Interim Staff Guidance (ISG) DSS-ISG-2025-XX, Treatment of Certain Loss-of-Coolant Accident Locations as Beyond-Design-Basis Accidents. The draft guidance, if adopted, would allow the NRC staff to determine that certain break locations that would normally be analyzed as design-basis loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCAs) can be treated as beyond-design-basis accidents.

On November 18, 2025, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued its Staff Requirements Memorandum for SECY-24-0009, which proposed changes to the NRC Enforcement Policy governing regulated materials and civil penalties. The proposed changes reflect the NRC Office of Enforcement’s periodic review of its Enforcement Policy, undertaken every few years to identify appropriate significant revisions.

Under the auspices of Section 5 of Executive Order 14300, Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published on November 26, 2025 an immediately effective final rule, Streamlining Select Rules of Practice and Procedure. The NRC rescinded a “discrete number” of its rules of practice as “either inconsistent with statutory requirements or duplicative of statutory requirements and other binding regulations.”

As part of the response to four executive orders focused on expanding and accelerating the development and use of nuclear energy, the US Department of Energy and US Nuclear Regulatory Commission have signed Addendum 9 to their 2019 Memorandum of Understanding on Nuclear Energy Innovation. The October 24 addendum details how the agencies will coordinate their activities on advanced reactors and nuclear fuel technologies more efficiently to implement activities under the EOs. The addendum underscores a whole-of-government approach to demonstrating and licensing advanced reactors and speeding up the transition from research to commercial deployment.

On October 21, 2025, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Office of Management and Budget issued Memorandum M-25-36, Streamlining the Review of Deregulatory Actions. The directive sets shorter timelines, encourages the use of legal exemptions to bypass lengthy procedures, and reduces consultation requirements with stakeholders, signaling a renewed push by OIRA to cut regulatory red tape. While the memorandum is aimed at accelerating regulatory reform, agencies must balance the benefits of speed against the potential for reduced regulatory stability.

The federal government shut down at 12:01 am on October 1, 2025 in the absence of legislation to appropriate funds for government operations. In light of the temporary lapse of appropriations, agencies including the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission have suspended certain agency activities.