The Nuclear Innovation Alliance's review of the DOE authorization changes says a 2019 DOE-NRC memorandum of understanding, and its Addendum No. 9 signed in October 2025, let NRC employees be detailed to DOE to help with safety reviews such as the DSA, with DOE training them on DOE requirements; that unresolved technical concerns raised by those detailed reviewers are resolved under DOE Idaho Operations Office procedure 01.OP.13 rather than the NRC's differing-professional-opinion process; and that NRC observers who are not detailed remain NRC staff learning for future licensing. It also notes both agencies are operating under constrained resources. Whether any NRC staff took part in the Ward 250 review is not stated in any record read. The addendum itself is on nrc.gov, which refused our reader; this fact rests on NIA's account.

• A Review of Recent DOE Updates to Its Reactor Authorization Process (Nuclear Innovation Alliance) analysis “will be resolved under the DOE's Idaho Management System Office Procedure 01.OP.13”