The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has amended its regulations for licensing non-power production or utilisation facilities to reflect the limited risk such facilities pose to public safety. At the same time, it is also revising the definition of a testing facility to a more risk-informed standard than the current power-based definition. The new final rule will eliminate licence terms for research reactors and medical therapy facilities, meaning they will no longer need to apply for renewed licenses to continue operating. Instead, they will be required to update their final safety analysis reports every five years to maintain a current licensing basis.

The NRC currently licenses 28 operating research reactors, mostly at universities, that fall into this category - also known as NPUFs.

NPUFs that qualify as commercial or testing facilities will continue to have finite licence terms, and the new final rule clarifies the license renewal process for these facilities, the NRC said.

The final rule will also revise the definition of a testing facility, which is currently any NPUF capable of producing more than 10 megawatts of energy is considered to be a testing facility. This prescriptive criterion will change to a more risk-informed standard based on an accident dose rate - which reflects the dose a person at the facility boundary would be calculated to receive during a hypothetical worst-case accident - of more than 1 Rem.

The NRC currently licenses one testing facility, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Kairos Power's Hermes test reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for which the NRC has issued a permit, will also fall into this category, and the agency has also issued a construction permit to SHINE Medical Technologies to build a commercial medical isotope production facility in Janesville, Wisconsin.

The new final rule does not change the licence renewal process for commercial nuclear power plants, the NRC said.