Policy and licensing / Arkansas

Arkansas: SMR policy and licensing

Selected federal measures and selected state measures whose official text was opened. This is not a complete list of laws, rules or programmes for any jurisdiction. A state without a page here is not a finding that it has no policy, and these pages do not rate or prefer any state. Nothing here implies that a project is eligible for, or approved under, any measure.

Federal measures apply in Arkansas as everywhere in the United States and are listed once on the federal page. They are not counted here.

Laws, rules and executive directives

• Arkansas Act 373 of 2025: advanced-energy strategic investment rider · In effect
  Arkansas Code § 23-4-1308, enacted by Act 373 of 2025 · Arkansas General Assembly · affects: Utility cost recovery
  Arkansas Act 373, approved 20 March 2025, lets a utility recover commission-approved strategic investments in advanced energy technologies, a term that includes modular nuclear reactors and other technologies. Existing nuclear generation already serving Arkansas customers is carved out of the new public-interest prerequisite. The act is cost recovery, not a construction permit.
  Not approved or pending: No commission public-interest finding or rider order was opened. The current code compilation was not opened, so a later amendment is not ruled out. No award amount is stated. No project is linked. The rider does not permit a reactor.
• Arkansas Act 707 of 2025: nuclear generation feasibility study · In effect
  Arkansas Act 707 of 2025 · Arkansas General Assembly · affects: State programme administration
  Arkansas Act 707, approved 16 April 2025, requires a state feasibility study of new nuclear generation, including small modular reactors and microreactors, but only after the act is funded. It is temporary uncodified language and it does not permit a plant.
  Not approved or pending: The study engagement waits until the act is funded, and no appropriation or award was opened. No executive order and no Arkansas Public Service Commission order were opened. No project is linked. The study does not approve a reactor.

Bills, proposed rules and consultations

• None recorded in this pilot.

Funding and support programmes

• None recorded in this pilot.

NRC permissions and applications for tracked projects located in Arkansas

Listed by project location only. The Arkansas measures above do not license reactors; the NRC does.

• None recorded.