The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which oversees the nation’s nuclear reactors, is undergoing a major internal reorganization aimed at improving efficiency.
In a Feb. 4 notice, the regulator said it will restructure itself around three core business lines—new reactors, operating reactors, and nuclear materials and waste—with the goal of reducing the amount of time it takes for nuclear operators and developers to obtain licenses.
Under the new structure, licensing and inspection functions will be integrated within each business line “to create a single point of accountability” and improve coordination between licensing and inspection teams from the outset of projects, the NRC said. In addition, functions currently handled under the corporate support business line will be consolidated to improve efficiency.
Among the agency’s near-term priorities are appointing key leaders for the reactor safety program and developing a new organizational chart and a change-management plan within the next 60 days, according to the notice.
The changes build on several of President Donald Trump’s executive orders that were issued in May 2025 to streamline the regulatory process and accelerate approvals for new nuclear plants and the extension of existing ones.
One of the orders set an 18-month deadline for NRC decisions on construction permits and operating licenses. Another allowed the construction of nuclear power reactors on certain federal lands belonging to the Energy Department and the War Department without NRC review.
Efforts to make the NRC more efficient began in earnest with the bipartisan 2024 ADVANCE Act, which directed the agency to set deadlines for licensing reviews, expedite certain applications, and develop guidelines for lower-output microreactors. That push has intensified under the second Trump administration, which has aimed to expand U.S. nuclear generating capacity from about 100 gigawatts in 2024 to 400 gigawatts by 2050—a vision the president has described as “America’s next nuclear renaissance.”
In the months following the presidential orders, the NRC’s membership shifted. Two Republicans, Douglas Weaver and Ho Nieh, joined the panel in January, bringing it to its full five members and giving Republicans a 3–2 majority. They serve alongside fellow Republican David Wright and Democratic commissioners Matthew Marzano and Bradley Crowell.
Nieh, the current NRC chair, was vice president of regulatory affairs at Southern Company as it completed two new reactors in Georgia. He was also the director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation from 2018 to 2021.
“We are in one of the most consequential periods in the NRC’s history, and this reorganization enables us to meet the moment with more efficient and timely decision making,” Nieh said in the Feb. 4 statement.
Nieh fills the commission seat vacated by Democrat Chris Hanson, who chaired the NRC during the Biden administration. Trump fired Hanson in June 2025—a move Hanson and several advocacy groups denounced as unlawful and damaging to the NRC’s independence and integrity as the nation’s nuclear safety watchdog.
“The arbitrary removal of commissioners without due cause creates regulatory uncertainty that threatens to delay America’s nuclear energy expansion,” the American Nuclear Society stated at the time.
