NRC Moves to Replace ALARA in Radiation Protection Overhaul; Public Comment Closes 31 August

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has proposed the first major revision to its radiation protection regulations in 35 years, and the window for public comment closes Monday, 31 August.

The proposed rule, “Reforming and Modernizing the NRC’s Radiation Protection Framework,” would replace the “as low as reasonably achievable” (ALARA) principle with what the agency describes as more objective, threshold-based requirements. Existing dose limits for workers and members of the public would remain unchanged.

The rulemaking would amend 10 CFR Parts 19, 20, 34, 35, 40, 50, 53, 61, 71, and 72—a list that includes Part 34, which governs licenses for industrial radiography.

What the NRC is proposing

In a news release issued 1 July, the NRC said the update would keep existing dose limits for the public and workers while reducing regulatory burden and modernizing requirements based on current science and operational experience.

The proposal would replace ALARA with requirements centered on compliance with regulatory precautions and established dose limits. According to the release, the agency concluded that maintaining ALARA as a separate regulatory expectation generates additional costs and complexity without measurable safety improvements.

“We’re raising the standard for regulatory clarity, not lowering the standard for safety,” NRC Chair Ho K. Nieh said in the release. “Our radiation dose limits remain unchanged—what we’re eliminating is unnecessary ambiguity.”

Beyond the ALARA change, the proposed framework would introduce a graded approach to dose management, expand flexibility for modern dose evaluation methods, broaden occupational exposure management options, and allow patient caregivers to voluntarily accept higher doses when assisting patients receiving radioactive treatments.

The proposed rule was published in the Federal Register on 15 July (91 FR 43456). If finalized, it could take effect in early 2027.

The planned occupational dose limit extension

The proposal does not change the annual occupational dose limit. It does create a new mechanism for exceeding it in a given year. The Federal Register notice describes the provision as establishing “a process, called the planned occupational dose limit extension, whereby individuals can exceed certain annual occupational dose limits as long as certain actions are taken and the resultant doses are maintained below multiyear limitations.”

According to NPR, which examined the proposal in a 27 August report by Geoff Brumfiel, the rule would retain annual thresholds of 5 rem for radiation workers and 0.1 rem for members of the public, while permitting workers to receive up to 10 rem in a single year under the extension, provided cumulative exposure over five years does not exceed 25 rem.

NPR reported that, at the NRC’s public meeting on the proposal, “the NRC said it envisioned the dose limit extension would be used sparingly for things like reactor refueling and upgrades at nuclear power plants.”

Public meeting drew more than 550

The NRC held its public meeting on the proposed rule on 10 August. According to reporting by the American Nuclear Society’s Nuclear Newswire, more than 550 people attended. Meeting facilitator Lance Rakovan described it as a “very popular meeting,” noting that NRC staff could not address all questions in the time allotted.

Mike Franovich, director of the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, presented a summary of the proposed changes. Asked about adopting alternative low-dose radiation models, Franovich said, “Fundamentally, for us to adopt such an approach to factor those in, we’re still left [with] the conundrum: Is there a consensus standard replacement model that we could readily use in this short time frame that really has the backing of peer review?”

On why the NRC declined to extend the comment period, Franovich said doing so “would compromise our ability to deliver on the executive order for timely NRC action.”

NRC technical staff members addressed several recurring concerns. “I want to categorically deny that we are implementing some type of below regulatory concern. That is absolutely not the case,” said NRC staffer David Garmon. “The 25 mrem is meant to be a threshold in terms of effluence for where a licensee has to report effluence to us; they have to record and monitor their effluence down to zero.”

Multiple participants argued that the comment period was too short given the scope of the changes. Nuclear Newswire reported that the NRC rejected requests to extend it. No additional public meeting has been announced before the 31 August deadline.

How to comment

Comments are due by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on 31 August 2026 and may be submitted at https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/NRC-2025-1140-0001.

The full text of the proposed rule is available in the Federal Register at https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/07/15/2026-14208/reforming-and-modernizing-the-nrcs-radiation-protection-framework.