# 2025-05899: NRC eases penalties for nuclear license update slip-ups

2025-05899, Interim Enforcement Policy for Enforcement Discretion for General Licensee Adoption of Certificate of Compliance Holder-Generated Changes, is a Federal Register proposed rule from Nuclear Regulatory Commission published 2025-04-07, effective Submit comments by April 28, 2025. The Interim Enforcement Policy (IEP) will remain in place until the underlying regulatory issue is dispositioned through rulemaking or other regulatory action.; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-10-07).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2025-05899
- As of: 2026-10-07
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Document number: 2025-05899
- Title: Interim Enforcement Policy for Enforcement Discretion for General Licensee Adoption of Certificate of Compliance Holder-Generated Changes
- Type: Proposed Rule
- Agencies: Nuclear Regulatory Commission
- Citation: 90 FR 14917
- Published: 2025-04-07
- Effective: Submit comments by April 28, 2025. The Interim Enforcement Policy (IEP) will remain in place until the underlying regulatory issue is dispositioned through rulemaking or other regulatory action.
- Comments close: not stated
- Significant: no
- Touches household money: yes
- Regulation identifier numbers: none
- Last updated: 2026-10-07

## In one line

NRC eases penalties for nuclear license update slip-ups

## Summary

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing a new policy that gives some wiggle room to general licensees who adopt changes made by Certificate of Compliance holders. This means fewer penalties for certain rule slip-ups while they update their systems. If you’re a licensee, you’ve got until April 28, 2025, to share your thoughts—no extra costs, just a smoother path forward!

## Abstract

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for public comments a proposed Interim Enforcement Policy (IEP) titled, "Enforcement Discretion for General Licensee Adoption of CoC Holder- Generated Changes." This proposed IEP would allow enforcement discretion for certain general licensee violations related to their adoption of a change generated by the Certificate of Compliance holder.

## Effects PRIA read

- Enforcement discretion for general licensees: benefit, medium. The NRC proposes an Interim Enforcement Policy to exercise enforcement discretion and not issue enforcement actions to a general licensee (GL) for certain violations of 10 CFR 72.48 and 72.212 when the noncompliance results from a Certificate of Compliance (CoC) holder's failure to comply with 10 C…
- No duplicate 72.48 evaluation when unchanged: benefit, medium. Under the proposed IEP, when a GL adopts a CoC holder-generated change and does not make site-specific, technical changes, the GL would not be required to perform a separate 10 CFR 72.48 screening and/or evaluation. The GL would only need to review the CoC holder's change for applicability to its c…
- GLs still must perform written evaluations: cost, low. The IEP clarifies that GLs remain responsible for performing written evaluations to establish that a storage cask conforms to the terms and conditions of the CoC in accordance with 10 CFR 72.212(b)(5) and (b)(6). GLs must also ensure compliance with applicable quality-assurance requirements (Append…
- Enforcement focused on change initiator: cost, medium. The proposed IEP states NRC enforcement actions will focus on the entity that initiated a change: the CoC holder will be accountable for noncompliance identified within CoC holder-generated 10 CFR 72.48 screenings and evaluations, while the GL will be accountable for noncompliance arising from GL-i…

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## Sources
- [2025-05899 on federalregister.gov](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/04/07/2025-05899/interim-enforcement-policy-for-enforcement-discretion-for-general-licensee-adoption-of-certificate)
- [2025-05899 as published (PDF)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-04-07/pdf/2025-05899.pdf)

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- [All Federal Register documents](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2025-05899 (as of 2026-10-07).