Washington (Platts)--24Feb2011/504 pm EST/2204 GMT

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission could hold its first so-called "mandatory" hearing this summer on an application to build and operate new nuclear power reactors, NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko told Senator James Inhofe in a February 16 letter released Thursday.

The agency is reviewing 12 applications for combined construction permit-operating licenses, or COLs, to build up to 20 new nuclear units.

The Atomic Energy Act requires two types of hearings be held on such applications.

"Contested" hearings are convened by an NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board only if parties petition the agency and submit contentions that are admitted by the board.

Mandatory hearings, by contrast, must be held whether or not an application has been contested. This has drawn criticism from Inhofe and other members of Congress.

Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who sits on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works that oversees NRC, said in a September 14, 2010 letter to Jaczko that "the Atomic Energy Act's mandatory hearing requirement has become increasingly unnecessary with the passage of time as the NRC has improved transparency and public involvement in the licensing process." Inhofe said he favored legislation to eliminate the mandatory hearing requirement.

NRC announced February 16 that the commission would hold the mandatory hearings, rather than a licensing board, and attempt to complete them within four months.

Jaczko said in his February 16 reply to Inhofe that "while the four-month goal represents a milestone as opposed to a binding requirement, the commission is fully committed to meeting it whenever possible and has marshaled the necessary resources to begin hearings this summer, when we expect the staff will issue the review documents for the first mandatory hearing."

--Steven Dolley, steven_dolley@platts.com

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