The Nuclear Innovation Alliance (NIA) conducted anonymized interviews in 2025 with various new reactor applicants to gauge the licensing process and build on our prior licensing efficiency reports. This report summarizes the major insights with respect to progress against prior licensing efficiency recommendations, as well as new recommendations. The summary and recommendations presented in this report do not necessarily reflect the views of any particular interviewees, but instead are NIA’s insights and synthesis of the conversations.
Communication and project management were major themes from the 2023 report and remained so in the interviews. Effective two-way communication between the NRC and applicants is essential to efficient licensing. This report provides recommendations on communication and best practices for REPs, audits, NRC project manager (PM) issues, NRC’s Office of the General Counsel (OGC), and the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS).