nuclear-news

US nuclear safety regulators say their jobs could be at risk under Trump

By Timothy Gardner, September 4, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-nuclear-safety-regulators-say-their-jobs-could-be-risk-under-trump-2025-09-03/

• Summary

• Pressure high on nuclear regulators after Trump orders
• Trump wants to quadruple nuclear power capacity by 2050
• Commissioner: hard to make safety calls if more staff leave

WASHINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) – Two of the three remaining commissioners at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the U.S. nuclear safety watchdog, told a Senate hearing on Wednesday they feel President Donald Trump could fire them if they obstruct his goal to approve reactors faster.

Trump signed executive orders in May that set goals of fast-tracking new reactor licenses and quadrupling U.S. nuclear energy capacity by 2050 to boost the power grid, while also reducing staffing at the NRC.

Trump later fired Commissioner Chris Hanson, a Democrat, while Commissioner Annie Caputo, a Republican, left in July, saying she wanted to more fully focus on her family. That brought the traditionally five-member panel down to three.

Commissioner Matthew Marzano, a Democrat, told the hearing he felt he could be fired by the administration if he decides a new reactor design is unsafe and declines to license it.

Commissioner Bradley Crowell, also a Democrat, said he felt on “any given day I could be fired by the administration for reasons unknown.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NRC Chairman David Wright, a Republican, said the agency has five applications from so-called advanced nuclear reactors that it is reviewing and it expects another 25 to 30 soon.

Wright declined to say whether he felt he could be fired, saying it would be “speculation.”

But he said NRC should not approve incomplete applications from companies looking to build new nuclear plants, even if it means missing an 18-month approval deadline set in Trump’s executive orders.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat who supports nuclear energy for its potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, said about a dozen senior level managers at the NRC have left or announced they will leave since January, and that 143 staff departed between January and June.

“It’s a personnel bloodbath,” Whitehouse said. “The industry stands or falls on the NRC’s gold-standard reputation for nuclear safety. It’s now in jeopardy.”

Crowell said if the agency lost any more staff, it would be tough to credibly make safety cases on the timeline in Trump’s orders.

September 4, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA