diff --git a/integration/_parameters b/integration/_parameters
index 998ffa47a5..1579602917 100644
--- a/integration/_parameters
+++ b/integration/_parameters
@@ -77,3 +77,6 @@ sdc_burn_tol_factor          real         1.d0
 # for Strang, this simply means scaling e by the initial energy?
 scale_system              integer         0
 
+# for the NSE update predictor-corrector, how many iterations
+# do we take to get the new time NSE state
+nse_iters                 integer         3
diff --git a/integration/nse_update_simplified_sdc.H b/integration/nse_update_simplified_sdc.H
index 533eb5171b..fe5fb20548 100644
--- a/integration/nse_update_simplified_sdc.H
+++ b/integration/nse_update_simplified_sdc.H
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ void sdc_nse_burn(BurnT& state, const Real dt) {
         rho_aux_new[n] = state.y[SFX+n] + dt * state.ydot_a[SFX+n] + dt * aux_source[n];
     }
 
-    for (int iter = 0; iter < 3; iter++) {
+    for (int iter = 0; iter < integrator_rp::nse_iters; iter++) {
 
         // update (rho e)^{n+1} based on the new energy generation rate
         rhoe_new = state.y[SEINT] + dt * state.ydot_a[SEINT] + dt * rho_enucdot;
@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@ void sdc_nse_burn(BurnT& state, const Real dt) {
         rhoX_new[n] = state.y[SFS+n] + dt * state.ydot_a[SFS+n] + dt * rhoX_source[n];
     }
 
-    for (int iter = 0; iter < 3; iter++) {
+    for (int iter = 0; iter < integrator_rp::nse_iters; iter++) {
 
         // update (rho e)^{n+1} based on the new energy generation rate
         rhoe_new = state.y[SEINT] + dt * state.ydot_a[SEINT] + dt * rho_enucdot;