NRC Licensing Process

The NRC licensing process is a lengthy and costly endeavor, taking a minimum of four years and over $1 billion, with no entity having successfully completed it from start to finish in nearly half a century. Certification of a design is a significant milestone, but it merely indicates proficiency, leaving companies still years and hundreds of millions of dollars away from actual construction. While innovations are emerging in the SMR space, the true challenge lies ahead in obtaining the necessary licenses to build and operate reactors.