The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules.

Removing the standard means that new reactors could be constructed with less concrete shielding, and workers could work longer shifts, potentially receiving higher doses of radiation

January 28, 2026, NPR

The Trump administration has overhauled a set of nuclear safety directives and shared them with the companies it is charged with regulating, without making the new rules available to the public, according to documents obtained exclusively by NPR.

The sweeping changes were made to accelerate development of a new generation of nuclear reactor designs. They occurred over the fall and winter at the Department of Energy, which is currently overseeing a program to build at least three new experimental commercial nuclear reactors by July 4 of this year.

The changes are to departmental orders, which dictate requirements for almost every aspect of the reactors’ operations — including safety systems, environmental protections, site security and accident investigations.

NPR obtained copies of over a dozen of the new orders, none of which is publicly available. The orders slash hundreds of pages of requirements for security at the reactors. They also loosen protections for groundwater and the environment and eliminate at least one key safety role. The new orders cut back on requirements for keeping records, and they raise the amount of radiation a worker can be exposed to before an official accident investigation is triggered.

Over 750 pages were cut from the earlier versions of the same orders, according to NPR’s analysis, leaving only about one-third of the number of pages in the original documents.

The new generation of nuclear reactor designs, known as small modular reactors, are being backed by billions in private equity, venture capital and public investments. Backers of the reactors, including tech giants Amazon, Google and Meta, have said they want the reactors to one day supply cheap, reliable power for artificial intelligence. (Amazon and Google are financial supporters of NPR.)

Outside experts who helped review the rules for NPR criticized the decision to revise them without any public knowledge.

“I would argue that the Department of Energy relaxing its nuclear safety and security standards in secret is not the best way to engender the kind of public trust that’s going to be needed for nuclear to succeed more broadly,” said Christopher Hanson, who chaired the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2021 to 2025, when he was fired by President Trump.

“They’re taking a wrecking ball to the system of nuclear safety and security regulation oversight that has kept the U.S. from having another Three Mile Island accident,” said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “I am absolutely worried about the safety of these reactors.”………………………………………………

A new nuclear path

The origins of the changes can be traced to the Oval Office. In May of last year, Trump sat behind the Resolute Desk and signed a series of executive orders on nuclear energy……………………………………………………………………………………..

Sites across the country will host new reactor designs……………………………………………………………

Rules rewritten

The documents reviewed by NPR show just how extensive the streamlining effort has been.

The new orders strip out some guiding principles of nuclear safety, notably a concept known as “As Low As Reasonably Achievable” (ALARA), which requires nuclear reactor operators to keep levels of radiation exposure below the legal limit whenever they can. The ALARA standard has been in use for decades at both the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Removing the standard means that new reactors could be constructed with less concrete shielding, and workers could work longer shifts, potentially receiving higher doses of radiation, according to Tison Campbell, a partner at K&L Gates who previously worked as a lawyer at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission……………………………………………………………………………………………………

The new rules also remove a requirement to use the “best available technology” to protect water supplies from the discharge of radioactive material……………………………………………………………………

Security rules slashed

Hundreds of pages of security rules were trimmed from the new orders, including a requirement to issue body armor to security police officers (SPOs).

Gone are detailed requirements for firearms training, emergency drills, officer-involved shooting procedures and limits on how many hours security force officers can work in a day or week. Entire chapters specifying how nuclear material should be secured and what sorts of physical barriers should be built to protect it have been reduced to bullet points……………………………………………………..

Loosening protections for the environment and workers

NPR’s review of the new orders shows that, in certain cases, they also appear to loosen rules about discharging radioactive material.

For example, the previous version of an order titled “Radiation Protection for the Public and the Environment” states that discharging radioactivity “from DOE activities into non-federally owned sanitary sewers are prohibited,” then provides a limited series of exceptions…………………………………

above all, the fact that the rewrites were done without public knowledge could be the most damaging, said Huff. In the past, public distrust has been a huge barrier to the development of nuclear power, and transparency is an important way to counter that mistrust………. https://www.npr.org/2026/01/28/nx-s1-5677187/nuclear-safety-rules-rewritten-trump