Why the NRC’s Part 53 Rule is the Only Date That Matters in 2026
Everyone is watching the stock price of SMR developers, but almost no one is watching the Federal Register. In February 2026, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is scheduled to finalize the Part 53 Rulemaking—a boring-sounding policy update that is actually the single most critical catalyst for the nuclear industry this decade.
1/9/20251 min read
If Part 53 passes with its "risk-informed" framework intact, the deployment timeline for companies like X-Energy and TerraPower accelerates by two full years. If it faces delays or bureaucratic dilution, the 2030 deployment targets promised to data center clients (like Microsoft and Amazon) become mathematically impossible.