Ryan K. Lighty represents and advises domestic and international businesses regarding litigation, transactions, and regulatory matters related to the ownership and use of nuclear reactors and nuclear materials. Ryan focuses his practice on complex issues associated with US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing, adjudication, and regulatory compliance. In the last decade, Ryan has represented NRC licensees and applicants in contested litigation before the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) and the Commission in more proceedings than any other lawyer in the United States.
Ryan regularly counsels clients on a range of complex issues associated with obtaining, amending, renewing, transferring, and terminating NRC licenses. He helps utilities and merchant power plant owners achieve sustainability, ESG, and climate change goals through nuclear plant license renewals and has advised on more than half of the subsequent license renewal (SLR) applications filed with the NRC to date.
Ryan also counsels clients on investments in companies and licensing of projects involving nuclear fusion, small modular reactors (SMRs), advanced reactors, and micro-reactors for both electricity generation and nontraditional uses, including production of hydrogen, medical isotopes, industrial process heat, and power for data centers and cryptocurrency mining operations. Ryan has advised current and potential investors, reactor technology vendors, project sponsors, and NRC applicants on regulatory requirements associated with construction permits, operating licenses, combined licenses (COLs), early site permits (ESPs), design certifications (DCs), and other regulatory pathways.
Ryan has successfully defended clients against a variety of technical, environmental, and financial claims in NRC adjudicatory hearings, including challenges associated with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), aging management programs (AMPs), and decommissioning funding. He also routinely guides clients on multifaceted regulatory compliance issues related to fitness-for-duty and work hour requirements, access authorization, firearms regulation, physical and cybersecurity, radiological decommissioning, decommissioning trust investments, nuclear insurance and liability issues, export controls, and Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI).
Ryan also helps employers navigate government ethics restrictions applicable to current and former federal agency employees and provides assistance to clients regarding the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and protection of trade secrets and confidential commercial information. Before joining Morgan Lewis, Ryan was a lawyer in the NRC’s Office of the General Counsel and served as acting regional counsel in the agency’s Region III office.
Listed, The Best Lawyers in America, Ones to Watch, Energy Law, Washington, DC (2021–2025)
Rising Star, Washington, DC Super Lawyers (2018–2022)
Member, Nuclear Energy Institute, License Renewal Environmental Task Force
Member, Law Firm of the Year, Energy/Projects: Power (including Renewables), Chambers USA (2018)
Member, Practice Group of the Year, Energy, Law360 (2016, 2019)
Member, Energy Law Firm of the Year, US News & World Report/Best Lawyers (2015)
Executive Managing Editor, Indiana International & Comparative Law Review (2010–2011)
Member, American Bar Association (ABA)
Member, ABA Infrastructure and Regulated Industries Section (IRIS)
Member, ABA-IRIS Nuclear Energy Committee
Member, ABA Section of Energy, Environment, and Resources (SEER)
Vice Chair, ABA-SEER Nuclear Law Committee
Member, Phi Delta Phi International Legal Honor Society