NRC legal department recommends new mission statement to comply with ADVANCE Act

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s in-house legal advisors this month recommended tweaking the agency’s mission statement to clarify that regulation does not unnecessarily limit beneficial civilian use of nuclear energy.

Separately, NRC’s Office of the Executive Director, helmed by the agency’s top civil servant, recommended a slightly different change to the mission statement.

NRC’s Office of the General Counsel, the legal office, made the recommendation in a commission paper published Oct. 23 and dated Oct. 8. The agency was required to rewrite its mission statement by the ADVANCE Act, which President Joe Biden (D) signed in July.

The law required that the NRC change its mission statement to show that the commission’s licensing of nuclear power plants “does not unnecessarily limit” either “the civilian use of radioactive materials” or “the benefits of civilian use of radioactive materials and nuclear energy technology to society.”

To comply with the new law, commission lawyers recommended adding a sentence to the agency’s mission statement. The legal office’s recommended mission statement, one of four options discussed in the commission paper, reads: 

The NRC protects public health and safety and the environment and promotes the common defense and security by licensing and regulating the Nation’s civilian use of radioactive materials. We accomplish this mission efficiently and without unnecessarily limiting the civilian use or benefits to society of radioactive materials and nuclear energy, while providing reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety.

Meanwhile, NRC’s Office of the Executive Director recommended a similar mission statement, according to the commission paper published last week: 

The NRC licenses and regulates the Nation’s civilian use of radioactive materials to provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety, to promote the common defense and security, and to protect the environment. We accomplish this mission efficiently and without unnecessarily limiting the civilian use and deployment of radioactive materials and nuclear energy or their benefits to society.

The NRC commissioners had not scheduled a vote on updating the agency’s mission statement as of Tuesday. Under the ADVANCE Act, the commission has until July 9, 2025 to update the mission statement. That could give the new U.S. President, to be elected on Nov. 5, an opportunity to influence the vote.