The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a mandatory hearing this week on Duke Energy Carolinas' application for an early site permit at its Belews Creek site in North Carolina, a step toward clearing the location for potential future nuclear reactors.
The hearing, scheduled for Sept. 17 at the Ronald W. Reagan Building in Danbury, North Carolina, will include an open house followed by a formal session in which NRC staff present the findings of the agency's safety and environmental reviews of the site. Members of the public will have an opportunity to ask questions and submit comments as part of the proceeding.
An early site permit does not authorize construction of a reactor. Instead, it allows the NRC to evaluate and approve a location, including its safety characteristics and environmental impact, years before a utility commits to building a specific reactor design there. Utilities increasingly are pursuing these permits to bank suitable sites as demand for new generation capacity grows across the Southeast, driven in part by population growth and rising electricity needs from data centers and industrial customers.
Duke Energy has continued to expand its long-term planning around nuclear power as utilities across the region weigh new capacity additions to meet load growth over the next decade. The Belews Creek review is part of a broader wave of site and licensing activity the NRC has processed this year alongside its own push to modernize the reactor licensing process.
The hearing record will factor into the NRC's eventual decision on whether to grant the site permit.
Source: Nuclear Regulatory Commission - https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/news-releases/2026/nrc-advisory-nrc-hold-mandatory-hearing-belews-creek-early-site-permit