The Nuclear Regulatory Commission hosted the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a joint meeting at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, on Thursday, October 22. The two agencies held their first joint meeting 20 years ago, after the 2003 Northeast blackout, during which nine U.S. nuclear reactors tripped offline.
FERC staff summarized the North American Electric Reliability Corporation's latest long-term reliability assessment, published in February. It forecasts summer peak demand growing by 224 GW over 10 years, almost 70 percent above the previous long-term forecast, with new data centers accounting for most of the increase. FERC is reviewing reforms to transmission service for large loads, including loads that co-locate with or sit near new generation.
Deepak Ramlatchan, deputy director of FERC's Office of Electric Reliability, said the generator interconnection process can now finish in 375 days in a best-case scenario, and in roughly two years or more in a worst case. He also described transfers of capacity interconnection rights, an approach used by three decommissioned plants working toward restart. Duane Arnold in Iowa uses rights transferred from a solar plant. This summer FERC approved a transfer of rights from a gas-and-oil-fired plant to Crane in Pennsylvania. For Palisades in Michigan, FERC eased deadlines that would have pushed the project into a more burdensome interconnection path.
NRC staff presented on the agency's reorganization, changes to power reactor programs and efforts to streamline reviews of new and advanced reactors. FERC Chair Laura Swett said the efficiencies found during the NRC's reform work impressed her. Commissioner David Rosner said he was excited to hear about the small reactor designs in development, and Commissioner David LaCerte said FERC appreciates the NRC's streamlining as restart orders come before it.
Source: ANS Nuclear Newswire - https://www.ans.org/news/2026-10-23/article-8516/nrc-hosts-ferc-for-joint-meeting-on-nuclear-generation-grid-reliability/