Policy and licensing / Rhode Island

Rhode Island: 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 Rhode Island as everywhere in the United States and are listed once on the federal page. They are not counted here.

Laws, rules and executive directives

• Rhode Island authorization to participate in nuclear-power procurement · In effect
  R.I. Gen. Laws § 39-31-5 · Rhode Island General Assembly · affects: State programme administration
  From 23 June 2025, Rhode Island law authorizes the distribution utility to participate voluntarily in procuring nuclear power for ratepayers. That authorization is not a permit to build a reactor.
  Not approved or pending: The section authorizes voluntary participation in procurement. It does not require a purchase and it does not site or permit a reactor. Any procurement the same section addresses must be commercially reasonable. No project is linked.
• Rhode Island energy facility siting licence · In effect
  R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-98-4 · Rhode Island General Assembly · affects: Siting
  Rhode Island requires a siting-board licence before a person sites, constructs, or alters a major energy facility. The opened definition includes generation of forty megawatts or more and nuclear-fuel processing, enrichment, storage, or disposal facilities. It does not itself grant a licence.
  Not approved or pending: The statute does not issue a licence. Generation below forty megawatts is not decided by the generation prong. The nuclear-fuel prong is separate. No project is linked.

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 Rhode Island

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

• None recorded.