Federal regulator
Appears in 4 stories
Gatekeeper for every SMR license
No US utility has ordered a newly designed commercial reactor and seen it come online since the 1970s. On April 24, 2026, the first company trying to break that drought rang the Nasdaq bell. X-energy priced its IPO at $23 a share ($4 above its marketed range) and raised $1.02 billion, the largest US nuclear public offering in years. Shares closed their first day up 27%, giving the company a market valuation of roughly $11.9 billion. The offering was oversubscribed more than 15 times.
Updated May 31
Issued TerraPower construction permit March 2026; published Part 53 rule; proposing ALARA revision; undergoing major internal reorganization to meet EO 14300 deadlines
On March 4, 2026, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a construction permit for TerraPower's Natrium reactor at Kemmerer, Wyoming—the first permit for a commercial non-light-water reactor in more than 40 years. TerraPower broke ground on April 23 with Bechtel as general contractor, making Kemmerer the first utility-scale advanced nuclear plant under active construction in the US.
Loaned staff to DOE; independence questioned after Hanson firing
The Energy Department published its secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules on February 26, about a month after NPR first reported their existence. By early March, Aalo Atomics had completed its Critical Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory — assembled in 40 days, the first new reactor built at INL in 50 years — and said it would go critical within weeks.
Updated May 27
Modernizing approval framework for digital control systems
The NRC approved something unprecedented in January 2026: replacing analog safety controls at an operating reactor with fully digital systems. Constellation's $167 million upgrade at Limerick replaces 1980s-era control rooms with digital command centers — the first time regulators have approved swapping multiple analog safety systems for a single digital platform with fuel rods still running.
Updated May 21
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