What is NRC Part 52 Licensing?

The NRC's one-step licensing framework under 10 CFR Part 52, providing combined construction and operating authorization through Design Certifications, Early Site Permits, and Combined Licenses.

What category does NRC Part 52 Licensing belong to?

NRC Part 52 Licensing is a regulatory concept in nuclear energy and SMR technology.

NRC Part 52 Licensing — Nuclear & SMR Glossary

10 CFR Part 52, "Licenses, Certifications, and Approvals for Nuclear Power Plants," was established to address the regulatory inefficiencies of the Part 50 two-step process by resolving design and safety issues before construction begins. Part 52 provides three integrated mechanisms: Design Certification (Subpart B), which approves a standard reactor design through federal rulemaking; Early Site Permit (Subpart A), which pre-approves a site for future nuclear construction; and Combined License (Subpart C), which authorizes both construction and operation in a single proceeding. When a COL references an already-certified design and an approved site, the review focuses only on the interface between the design and the site, along with operational programs.

The Part 52 framework's flagship application was the licensing of Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the Vogtle site in Georgia, where Southern Nuclear received COLs for Units 3 and 4. These units entered commercial operation in 2023 and 2024 respectively, becoming the first new U.S. nuclear units in a generation. The AP1000's NRC Design Certification, originally issued in 2006 and amended in 2011, was the key Part 52 instrument that enabled the Vogtle COLs. NuScale Power's US600 Design Certification, granted in January 2023, and the US460 Standard Design Approval in May 2025 are the only SMR-specific Part 52 approvals to date. Standard Design Approval (Subpart E) is a related mechanism that approves a major portion of a design with somewhat less regulatory finality than a full DC.

For SMR developers evaluating their licensing strategy, Part 52 offers the advantage of greater upfront certainty since all safety issues are resolved before construction begins, but at the cost of longer pre-construction timelines. The NRC's review of NuScale's original Design Certification took approximately six years, and the full Vogtle licensing process stretched over a decade from application to operation. Oklo is pursuing the Part 52 COL pathway for its Aurora powerhouse, with COLA Phase 1 submission planned for 2026. The Part 52 framework is best suited for commercial fleet deployments where design maturity, construction predictability, and investor confidence in regulatory finality outweigh the schedule advantages of Part 50 construction permits.