By Francois Murphy
VIENNA, Sept 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. nuclear power regulator's overhaul of rules, part of a push to cut approval times for new reactors to 18 months, will continue well into next year, its chairman told Reuters on Tuesday, as the Trump administration seeks to quadruple the country's nuclear capacity by 2050.
To help meet power demand surging from electric vehicles, data centers and crypto mining, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is making a series of changes aimed at streamlining
the licensing of new facilities. It has already proposed narrowing the scope of environmental reviews and changing a rule protecting people from radiation.
"I would say well into next year," NRC Chairman Ho Nieh said in an interview on the sidelines of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's General Conference, an annual meeting of member states, when asked how much longer the overhaul would continue.
"You're going to see some final rules be published in the Federal Register toward the end of this year, into early next year, and deeper into next calendar year," he added.
Further planned changes include a regulatory framework for microreactors, tiny factory-built nuclear plants that developers say will be easily transported, and which the U.S. Army hopes will one day power remote installations.
The NRC is getting closer to its target of approving new facilities within 18 months, but will not do so at any cost, he said.
"Those are timelines we are challenging ourselves to meet, but we will not issue a decision if it's not safe. And if it's something that has to take more time, we will take more time to do it. I trust staff to exercise those judgments in doing that," he said.
Licensing approvals for new nuclear facilities have previously taken several years.
NRC DEFENDS INDEPENDENCE
Trump last year signed four executive orders on nuclear power that seek to shorten the approval time.
In a report on global nuclear security published on Tuesday, the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a think tank, said the orders had "compromised the political independence and oversight authority" of the NRC by, among other things, requiring changes in regulation to be submitted to the White House for approval.
Nieh rejected that assertion.
"There is no reduction in our independence. We are part of the federal government. Like all executive branch agencies, we follow the general policies set by the administration," Nieh said.
"We make and we own our regulatory decisions, and that hasn't changed. So I know it's provocative to say that the NRC is not independent, but I reject that assertion because I'm in it. I see what's happening."
(Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
