Assistance to Foreign Atomic Energy Activities

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY <CFR>10 CFR Part 810</CFR> <RIN>RIN 1994-AA06</RIN> <SUBJECT>Assistance to Foreign Atomic Energy Activities</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Department of Energy (DOE). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> On September 4, 2025, the Secretary of Energy (“Secretary”) issued a Determination generally authorizing the destinations of the Philippines and Singapore for exports of controlled nuclear technology and assistance under DOE's regulation on <E T="03">Assistance to Foreign Atomic Energy Activities.</E> Accordingly, DOE is issuing this final rule to add the Philippines and Singapore to the generally authorized destinations list in appendix A. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> This rule is effective on November 24, 2025. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Mr. Richard Goorevich, Assistant Deputy Administrator, Office of Nonproliferation and Arms Control (NPAC), National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585, telephone (202) 586-6836, <E T="03">richard.goorevich@nnsa.doe.gov;</E> Mr. Stephen Markus, Office of the General Counsel, GC-74, Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585, telephone (240) 243-3387, <E T="03">stephen.markus@hq.doe.gov;</E> or Mr. Zachary Stern, Office of the General Counsel, National Nuclear Security Administration, Department of Energy, 1000 Independence Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20585, telephone (202) 586-8627, <E T="03">zachary.stern@nnsa.doe.gov.</E> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Background and Discussion of Final Rule</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Good Cause for Dispensing With Notice and Comment</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. Regulatory Review</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Approval of the Office of the Secretary</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background and Discussion of Final Rule</HD> On September 4, 2025, the Secretary issued a “determination and authorization pursuant to section 57 b.(2) of the <E T="03">Atomic Energy Act of 1954,</E> as amended, regarding exports of nuclear technology and assistance to the Philippines and Singapore,” which was published in the <E T="04">Federal Register</E> on September 16, 2025 (90 FR 44651). Section 57b.(2) of the <E T="03">Atomic Energy Act of 1954,</E> as amended (“AEA”) (42 U.S.C. 2077(b)(2)), enables peaceful nuclear trade by helping to assure that nuclear technology exports from the United States will not be used for non-peaceful purposes. Part 810 of title 10, Code of Federal Regulations (“part 810”) implements section 57 b.(2) of the AEA, pursuant to which the Secretary has granted a general authorization for certain categories of activities that the Secretary has found to be non-inimical to the interest of the United States—including assistance or transfers of technology to the generally authorized destinations listed in appendix A to part 810. In light of the Secretary's Determination to generally authorize the Philippines and Singapore to cover exports of part 810-controlled nuclear technology and assistance, DOE is amending the generally authorized destinations list in appendix A by adding the Philippines and Singapore. <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Good Cause for Dispensing With Notice and Comment</HD> In accordance with the <E T="03">Administrative Procedure Act</E> (APA), an agency may waive the notice and comment procedure if it finds, for good cause, that it is “impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest.” 5 U.S.C. 553(b). Additionally, 5 U.S.C. 553(d) provides that an agency may waive the 30-day delayed effective date upon finding of good cause. DOE finds good cause that notice and comment for this rule is unnecessary due to the nature of the revisions. This final rule simply makes ministerial changes to appendix A by adding the Philippines and Singapore to the generally authorized destinations list. Comments cannot alter the regulation given that the generally authorized destination status for the Philippines and Singapore has already been made effective through the Secretarial Determination issued on September 4, 2025 and published on September 16, 2025, at 90 FR 44651. Accordingly, DOE has concluded that there is good cause to publish this final rule without prior opportunity for public comment because the action merely aligns appendix A with the Secretarial Determination. A delay in effective date is unnecessary for these same reasons. Therefore, these amendments are published as final and are effective November 24, 2025. <HD SOURCE="HD1">III. Regulatory Review</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD2">A. Executive Order 12866 and 13563</HD> Executive Order (E.O.) 12866, “Regulatory Planning and Review,” 58 FR 51735 (Oct. 4, 1993), as supplemented and reaffirmed by E.O. 13563, “Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review,” 76 FR 3821 (Jan. 21, 2011) requires agencies, to the extent permitted by law, to (1) propose or adopt a regulation only upon a reasoned determination that its benefits justify its costs (recognizing that some benefits and costs are difficult to quantify); (2) tailor regulations to impose the least burden on society, consistent with obtaining regulatory objectives, taking into account, among other things, and to the extent practicable, the costs of cumulative regulations; (3) select, in choosing among alternative regulatory approaches, those approaches that maximize net benefits (including potential economic, environmental, public health and safety, and other advantages; distributive impacts; and equity); (4) to the extent feasible, specify performance objectives, rather than specifying the behavior or manner of compliance that regulated entities must adopt; and (5) identify and assess available alternatives to direct regulation, including providing economic incentives to encourage the desired behavior, such as user fees or marketable permits, or providing information upon which choices can be made by the public. DOE emphasizes as well that E.O. 13563 requires agencies to use the best available techniques to quantify anticipated present and future benefits and costs as accurately as possible. In its guidance, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) has emphasized that such techniques may include identifying changing future compliance costs that might result from technological innovation or anticipated behavioral changes. For the reasons stated in the preamble, this final rule is consistent with these principles. Section 6(a) of E.O. 12866 also requires agencies to submit “significant regulatory actions” to OIRA for review. OIRA has determined that this regulatory action does not constitute a “significant regulatory action” under E.O. 12866. Accordingly, this action was not submitted to OIRA for review under E.O. 12866 <HD SOURCE="HD2">B. Additional Executive Orders and Presidential Memoranda</HD> DOE has examined this final rule and has determined that it is consistent with the policies and directives outlined in E.O. 14154 “Unleashing American Energy,” E.O. 14192, “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation,” and Presidential Memorandum, “Delivering Emergency Price Relief for American Families and Defeating the Cost-of-Living Crisis.” <HD SOURCE="HD2">C. National Environmental Policy Act</HD> DOE has determined that this rule is covered under the Categorical Exclusion found in DOE's <E T="03">National Environmental Policy Act</E> regulations at paragraph A5 of appendix A to subpart D, 10 CFR part 1021, which applies to a rulemaking that amends an existing rule or regulation and that does not change the environmental effect of the rule or regulation being amended. Accordingly, neither an environmental assessment nor an environmental impact statement is required. <HD SOURCE="HD2">D. Regulatory Flexibility Act</HD> The <E T="03">Regulatory Flexibility Act</E> (5 U.S.C. 601 <E T="03">et seq.</E> ) requires preparation of an initial regulatory flexibility analysis for any rule that, by law, must be proposed for public comment, unless the agency certifies that the rule, if promulgated, will not have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. As discussed previously, DOE has determined that providing notice and opportunity for public comment on this final rule is unnecessary. Therefore, no regulatory flexibility analysis has been prepared for this final rule. The changes to appendix A are summarized in section I of this document. DOE has reviewed the changes under the provisions of the <E T="03">Regulatory Flexibility Act</E> and the procedures and policies published on February 19, 2003. The changes update the list of generally authorized destinations. They do not expand the scope of activities currently regulated under part 810. DOE estimates that approximately 10 percent of the entities impacted by part 810 are small businesses, which generally fall within two North American Industry Classification System codes: engineering services (541330) and computer systems designs services (541512). Often, their requests for authorization include the transfer of computer codes or other similar products. Generally speaking, small businesses reported that their initial filing of a part 810 request for authorization required up to 40 hours of legal assistance, but follow-on reporting and requests required significantly less assistance. The requirements for small businesses exporting nuclear technology abroad would not substantively change because the revisions to this rule do not add new burdens or duties to small businesses. The obligations of any person subject t ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 18k characters. 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