NRC Sends Foreign Ownership Direct Final Rule to OMB

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a direct final rule from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on “Exceptions from Foreign Ownership, Control, or Domination [NRC-2024-0218]”. This rulemaking is supporting the requirements of §301 of the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act of 2024 (Division B of PL 118-67, 138 STAT. 1465).

The Spring 2025 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking notes:

“This rulemaking would amend the NRC’s regulations to comply with Section 301 of the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act of 2024, which has designated certain exclusions from the foreign ownership, control, or domination provision set forth in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended. This rulemaking would affect applicants and licensees of commercial nuclear power reactor or non-power production or utilization facilities that are owned, controlled, or dominated by a foreign entity.”

I am not expanding coverage of this blog to include the NRC; really, I am not. This rulemaking just caught my interest. I do not expect that there will be any detailed coverage of this rule here, but I will almost certainly mention its publication in the Federal Register in the appropriate Short Take post.