WASHINGTON (WV News) — Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., continues to support efforts that could aid the development of nuclear power generation in West Virginia.

Capito is among the signatories of a letter urging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review and modify the draft licensing framework for advanced nuclear reactor technologies to establish the regulations to enable the deployment of advanced reactors.

Capito, who helped introduce the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy Act of 2023 at the beginning of June, is one of the 20 senators and 44 House members who signed the letter.

“We all agree that a successful Part 53 regulatory framework should reflect congressional intent and be used to license the next generation of nuclear reactors,” the members wrote. “In order to be effective, we urge the Commission to work to address any outstanding issues prior to issuance of a final rule. Your review and modifications of the proposed rule will determine if that success is achieved.”

In 2018, Congress passed the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act, which reformed NRC’s fee structure and required regulatory reforms to help enable efficient licensing of advanced nuclear reactor technologies, according to the letter.

NEIMA included specific direction for the Commission to “complete a rulemaking to establish a technology-inclusive, regulatory framework for optional use by commercial advanced nuclear reactor applicants for new reactor license applications” by Dec. 31, 2027.

On March 1, the NRC staff provided the Commission with the proposed rule, known as the “Part 53” rule. The proposed rule includes 1,173 pages and is supported by a draft environmental assessment, a draft regulatory analysis, and a staff analysis of alternative approaches to selected topics.

The letter lists “some of the most important issues that a final Part 53 rule” must address and include:

a two-framework structure that limits the proposed rule’s overall benefit;

the use of Quantitative Health Objectives as performance criteria;

the inclusion of the principle of “As Low As Reasonably Achievable” as a design requirement;

the requirement to protect against “beyond-design-basis-events” in the design basis;

the inclusion of a facility safety program; and

inconsistent application of new programs and terminology.

“As you provide your specific revisions to the proposed rule, we urge you to consider previous and ongoing efforts by public stakeholders, and to utilize the public comment portion of the rulemaking process to seek specific information that may be incorporated into the final rule,” the members wrote.

In 2022, the West Virginia Legislature passed Senate Bill 4, which repealed a pair of bills passed in 1996 that established the state’s ban on nuclear power plants.

Capito, who serves as the ranking Republican member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has said she is “very interested” in expanding nuclear availability for power generation in the Mountain State.

“It’s clean, and there’s all kinds of innovations that have made it much, much safer and a much smaller footprint,” she said at the end of April. “There are small modular units, and there’s advanced nuclear units.”