Facilities & Safety

The NRC licenses and oversees the nation's operating nuclear power reactors, research and test reactors, medical radioisotope facilities, and nuclear fuel cycle and materials facilities. The Facility Locator identifies these sites by region, state, or name, along with facilities currently undergoing decommissioning. The NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, supported by four regional offices covering the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, and West/Southwest, administers reactor licensing and oversight, while daily Power Reactor Status Reports and Event Notification Reports track current plant operating conditions and reported incidents.

Nuclear safety and security programs govern how licensees operate, maintain, and protect these facilities. The NRC's Reactor Oversight Process evaluates plant safety performance on an ongoing basis, drawing on performance indicators, inspection findings, and semiannual assessments for every operating reactor. Security and safeguards requirements, established under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, address the accounting and protection of special nuclear material, cybersecurity, information security, and licensee contingency plans against theft, sabotage, and insider threats. The NRC also conducts force-on-force security exercises at nuclear power plants to test defensive capabilities.

Because radiation is present in the environment but can pose risks without proper controls, the NRC sets requirements for how licensees use, store, and dispose of radioactive materials to protect workers, the public, and the environment. This includes regulation of low-level waste, high-level waste (irradiated reactor fuel), waste incidental to reprocessing, and uranium mill tailings, along with the storage and transportation of spent nuclear fuel. The NRC's Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards oversees waste management and disposal policy, decommissioning and site cleanup, and uranium recovery activities, working alongside Agreement States that share responsibility for regulating certain radioactive materials.

NRC's Fire Protection and Radiation pages (and their subpages) describe how the agency regulates safety at nuclear facilities. Fire Protection covers oversight of reactors and fuel-cycle plants, fire-safety research, and resources like fact sheets, an exemption database, and case studies (Browns Ferry, Baltimore Tunnel). Radiation covers everyday exposure, health effects, protective measures (dose limits, monitoring), and security issues like dirty bombs, plus a dose calculator and FAQs.