[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4675 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4675

To amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to clarify the organization and 
 duties of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 17, 2023

 Mr. Donalds introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                    Committee on Energy and Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to clarify the organization and 
 duties of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Advisory Committee on Reactor 
Safeguards Reform Act'' or the ``ACRS Reform Act''.

SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (in this Act referred 
        to as the ``Commission'') should take a more active approach in 
        collaborating with the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on 
        Reactor Safeguards (in this Act referred to as the 
        ``Committee'') for the purpose of modernizing and evaluating 
        the scope of the Committee, in furtherance of the requirements 
        set out in the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act 
        along with role of the Committee in independently reviewing and 
        resolving key application issues;
            (2) the Commission staff should improve its preparation for 
        engagements with the Committee to better optimize the review of 
        pending application topics;
            (3) the Commission and Committee staff should collaborate 
        and review practices to identify best practices that lead to 
        efficient and effective Committee reviews;
            (4) the Committee should focus its reviews on novel and 
        safety-significant issues in its review process;
            (5) the Committee shouldn't heavily focus on reviewing the 
        aspects of reactor technologies that are well known and well 
        understood;
            (6) the Committee should recognize and understand that the 
        Commission staff time is valuable in ultimately streamlining, 
        and approving, nuclear reactor applications;
            (7) the Committee should perform a budget review to 
        Committee staff to ensure it's appropriately staffed to ensure 
        it can meet the anticipated future influx of applications;
            (8) the Committee should be modernized by improving the 
        internal processes associated with the Committee independent 
        review process;
            (9) the Committee should consider modifying its Membership 
        Balance Plan to ensure adequate expertise and experience, while 
        simultaneously ensuring increased member diversity, including 
        but not limited to establishing certain term limits to carry 
        forth this intention;
            (10) Congress recognizes that the Committee originally 
        provided significant value in providing an independent review 
        of each application, but after decades of accumulating 
        experience and vast changes in nuclear technology, the 
        Committee no longer serves the same role as it originally did; 
        and
            (11) Congress understands the Committee has the potential 
        to play a valuable role in the Commission licensing review 
        process, but its purpose, processes, and practices need to be 
        improved, economized, and modernized.

SEC. 3. ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON REACTOR SAFEGUARDS REFORM.

    (a) Selection of ACRS Chairman.--Section 29 of the Atomic Energy 
Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2039) is amended by striking ``by the Committee 
as its Chairman'' in the third sentence and inserting ``as the Chairman 
of the Committee by a majority of the members of the Commission''.
    (b) License Applications.--
            (1) In general.--Section 182 b. of the Atomic Energy Act of 
        1954 (42 U.S.C. 2232(b)) is amended by striking ``The Advisory 
        Committee'' and inserting the following:
            ``(1) In general.--The Advisory Committee''.
            (2) Limitation on review.--Section 182 of the Atomic Energy 
        Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2232) is amended by inserting at the end 
        of subsection b., as amended by paragraph (1), the following:
            ``(2) Limitation on review.--With respect to the 
        applications described in paragraph (1), the Advisory Committee 
        on Reactor Safeguards may only review such applications that 
        present a novel issue or an issue of significant safety 
        concern, based on a risk-informed determination by the 
        Committee.''.
    (c) Fee Recovery Exemption.--Section 102(b)(1)(B) of the Nuclear 
Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (42 U.S.C. 2215(b)(1)(B) is 
amended by adding at the end the following:
                            ``(iv) Costs associated with any reviews 
                        conducted by the Advisory Committee on Reactor 
                        Safeguards, established under section 29 of the 
                        Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2039), 
                        including any direct or indirect costs relating 
                        to preparing for, or attending, meetings held 
                        by the Advisory Committee on Reactor 
                        Safeguards.''.
    (d) ACRS Organization.--Section 29 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 
(42 U.S.C. 2039) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``There is hereby'' and inserting the 
        following:
    ``(a) In General.--There is hereby'';
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(b) Prohibition on Subcommittees.--The Committee established 
under subsection (a) may not form subcommittees.''.
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