Why We're Suing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission—and Still Believe in Nuclear Regulation

Yahoo

14-04-2025

At Deep Fission, we're taking a radically different approach to nuclear energy: smaller, safer, faster to deploy—and located a mile underground. By placing reactors deep beneath the Earth's surface, we use the natural containment of billions of tons of bedrock to dramatically improve safety and cut costs.
COMMENTARY Liz Muller, CEO and co-founder of Deep Fission
We believe in regulation. We also believe in common sense. That's why we've joined the states of Utah, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, the Arizona State Legislature, and fellow reactor developers Last Energy and Valar Atomics in a federal lawsuit aimed at modernizing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC's) outdated licensing regime. This isn't about avoiding oversight. It's about unlocking the energy the country urgently needs—and removing the regulatory barriers that are stopping us from doing it. We are entering a new era of energy demand, and it's happening now. Data centers, artificial intelligence (AI), re-industrialization, and large-scale electrification are all converging to push our grid to its limits. According to recent estimates, U.S. electricity demand could rise as much in the next 15 years as it did in the previous 50. We are simply not prepared for that. Despite over a decade of serious investment in advanced nuclear, not a single advanced reactor is commercially operating in the U.S. The only new plant to come online recently—Plant Vogtle's Units 3 and 4—took 15 years and cost more than $35 billion, far more than originally projected. While it's an achievement in its own right, that pace and price point are nowhere near what we need to meet this moment. Meanwhile, today's regulatory process all but guarantees more of the same. Even with planned fee reductions, the NRC's system remains slow, expensive, and ill-suited for the new generation of safe, modular reactors designed to be simpler and faster to deploy. Let me be clear: the NRC is the gold standard for nuclear safety. We fully support its mission, and we intend to meet and exceed its standards. But when the process itself becomes the bottleneck—when it takes longer to license a safe, next-gen reactor than it does to build a factory or develop a whole new technology platform—then something's broken. And it's not just a bureaucratic problem. It's a national security problem. We're facing a choice: build the energy infrastructure this country needs—or fall behind. Here's the deeper issue: the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 was written with nuance. It said that a federal license is only required for nuclear facilities that pose a risk to public health or national security. That's a reasonable threshold. But since 1956, the NRC has applied that requirement to every reactor—regardless of scale, design, or risk profile. That blanket approach no longer makes sense. At Deep Fission, our underground reactors are fundamentally different. By design, they eliminate many of the traditional risks associated with nuclear power. We're not asking for an exemption from safety—we're asking for a modern framework that recognizes technological progress and allows low-risk systems to move through the process with appropriate speed and scrutiny. Other countries are moving fast. We can too. If the U.S. wants to remain competitive—if we want to power AI, industry, and a low-carbon future—we need to get serious about deployment. That means making the hard choices, fixing the broken systems, and rethinking how we regulate in a way that preserves safety and supports innovation. We don't have another decade to wait. We filed this lawsuit because we believe in nuclear power—and because we believe the United States can still lead. We believe the original intent of the law had it right. And we believe that with a smarter, more adaptive approach to regulation, we can meet this moment with clean, safe, affordable energy that's ready to scale. Let's modernize the system. Let's build the future. — is CEO and co-founder of Deep Fission.