The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)

The Client

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is the independent federal agency that licenses and regulates the nation’s civilian use of radioactive materials. Its mission is to protect public health and safety, promote the common defense and security, and protect the environment.

The Situation

NRC.gov is one of the largest public websites in the federal government, with about 40,000 web pages and 53,000 PDF files on a single domain. The public, licensees, and federal partners rely on it for safety information, regulatory updates, and public meeting notices.

The site ran on Kentico, a commercial CMS with its own proprietary hosting. Over time, NRC content had spread across multiple contractors and hosting environments, which added cost and made the site harder to manage. Editorial teams of more than 125 authenticated users published across tens of thousands pages, and every change had to meet federal accessibility and security standards.

NCR’s Office of the Chief Information Office (OCIO) set out to modernize the platform. NRC procured Acquia Cloud Platform for hosting and selected RIVA Solutions to lead the migration, a full user experience redesign, content strategy, and day-to-day operations.

The Challenge

NRC needed a modern, open source platform that could meet strict federal requirements without putting a high-stakes public resource at risk:

• Zero downtime. The move had to preserve every public URL and launch without a production outage.
• Continuous compliance. The platform had to launch and operate under an active Authority to Operate (ATO) on a FedRAMP Moderate boundary.
• Accessibility and user experience. The new site needed to exceed section 508 and align with OMB M-23-22 and the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS).
• High-volume publishing. Editorial workflows had to support 125 or more authenticated users across tens of thousands of pages.
• Simpler operations. NRC wanted fewer vendors and environments to manage, with one team accountable for hosting, CDN, and platform issues.

The Solution

NRC chose Acquia Cloud Platform, a fully managed Drupal platform with FedRAMP Moderate authorization, and engaged RIVA Solutions to lead the migration, a full user experience redesign, and day-to-day operations. Acquia is the only commercial Drupal hosting provider with FedRAMP Authorization.

“Having a production-ready, fully FedRAMP authorized cloud platform to do our day-to-day work made it a no-brainer when we flipped the switch,” said Sean Fitzpatrick, Chief Digital Officer at RIVA Solutions.

A proven, lower-risk choice for compliance

Hosting on an already authorized platform reduced the work needed to secure NRC.gov’s ATO compared with a non-authorized host. Acquia Cloud Platform is proven across federal and enterprise websites, which made it a low-risk choice for a site of this size and visibility.

Consolidation without new spend

RIVA consolidated websites from multiple contractors and hosting environments onto NRC’s existing Acquia entitlements, without NRC purchasing additional capacity. RIVA owns triage across Drupal, Acquia Cloud Platform hosting, and the Akamai CDN and WAF, backed by Jira ticketing and defined response SLAs.

An execution partnership

RIVA worked closely with the Acquia Technical Account Manager (TAM) team throughout the engagement. When the development team hit a hard problem, the TAM team stepped up with a solution.

The Results

The new NRC.gov launched on schedule on Acquia Cloud Platform and has run without a disruptive upgrade since. 

• Zero-outage launch. Migrated 40,000 pages and 53,000 PDF files, plus three secure sites, with zero production outages and every public URL preserved.
• Significant efficiencies and cost savings. Consolidating websites from multiple contractors and hosting environments onto Acquia Cloud Platform resulted in significant efficiencies and cost savings for NRC.
• Platform currency. Upgraded from Drupal 10 to Drupal 11 after launch with no service disruption.
• Stronger accessibility. Remediated heading hierarchy, ARIA roles, and color contrast to exceed Section 508 requirements.
• Faster support. Established a one-hour email and five minute phone response standard, with standard issues resolved within 48 hours.
• A redesigned experience. The full user experience redesign, built on the migrated platform, launched in September 2026.

“Working with Acquia has been an execution partnership. The Acquia TAM Team is solid. They respond whenever we need them, and their answers are thoughtful, smart, and actionable. More often than not, they come back with a solution, not a ‘let me look into it.’ Any time our development team hit a sticky situation, they jumped in and worked it through with us. That is not always the case, and we would tell anyone.” - Sean Fitzpatrick, Chief Digital Officer, RIVA Solutions