nuclear-news

The Nuclear Gambit: Trump just handed the atom to the highest bidder

NJ Today News, 2 June 25, https://njtoday.news/2025/05/31/the-nuclear-gambit-trump-just-handed-the-atom-to-the-highest-bidder/

The air in America reeks of uranium and unchecked ambition as the Trump administration, in a move that can be described as arson, signed a series of executive orders designed to gut the Nuclear Regulatory Commission—the last line of defense between corporate nuclear profiteers and the American public.

This was no mere policy shift.

This was a full-scale sabotage of oversight, a calculated demolition of the very safeguards that have kept Three Mile Island from becoming a recurring nightmare. With the stroke of a pen, Trump has effectively turned the NRC into a rubber-stamp factory, slashing staff, silencing public input, and fast-tracking reactor approvals with all the caution of a drunk gambler doubling down on a losing hand.

The Death of Independent Regulation

The NRC was created for one reason: to keep nuclear power from killing people. But in Trump’s America, profit margins matter more than containment walls. His executive order, dripping with disdain for “overregulation,” directs the NRC to stop worrying about “trivial risks”—as if radiation exposure were a mere nuisance, like a parking ticket.

Meanwhile, the newly christened Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—a bureaucratic black hole designed to strangle federal agencies—will “streamline” the NRC by cutting staff and kneecapping its ability to conduct rigorous safety reviews.

Senator Ed Markey, one of the few voices in Washington still screaming into the void, put it bluntly: “Trump wants to turn this critical regulatory agency into the Johnny Appleseed of nuclear energy without safeguards and despite the law that states the NRC has no role in promoting the expansion of nuclear activity. This executive order is a giveaway to the nuclear industry, which has a track record that includes mismanaging for 15 years and at a $35 billion price tag, building just one nuclear power plant in Georgia. That is the very definition of waste.”

The Corporate Handshake

Of course, none of this happens in a vacuum. Standing beside Trump at the signing ceremony was Joe Dominguez, CEO of Constellation Energy, the largest nuclear operator in the U.S. Constellation has big plans—like restarting Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 reactor, the same site where a partial meltdown in 1979 nearly turned Pennsylvania into a no-go zone.

Dominguez, ever the corporate evangelist, whined about “silly questions” slowing down permits—as if nuclear safety were some bureaucratic prank rather than a matter of life and death.

And why the rush? Because AI needs power. 

That’s right—the same tech bros who brought us algorithmic chaos now demand 24/7 nuclear juice to fuel their data centers.

Never mind that the last two reactors built in the U.S. were seven years late and $18 billion over budget. Never mind that small modular reactors (SMRs), the industry’s latest pipe dream, are financial black holes propped up by taxpayer subsidies. The grift must go on.

The Ghosts of Uranium Past

But the darkest specter looming over this radioactive power grab is uranium mining—an industry with a legacy of death and environmental ruin.

The Navajo Nation still bears the scars of decades of exploitation, with poisoned water, cancer clusters, and abandoned mines littering their land. Now, with Trump’s orders expanding domestic uranium production, those horrors may return under the banner of “energy dominance.”

Amber Reimondo of the Grand Canyon Trust put it best: “They’re repeating history, pretending the lessons were never learned.”

The Fallout

What does this all mean? It means fewer safety checks. It means rushed reactor designs. It means communities silenced in the name of “efficiency.” And, most of all, it means a windfall for nuclear executives while taxpayers foot the bill for their inevitable disasters.

Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists put it bluntly: “This is a recipe for catastrophe.”

But in Trump’s America, catastrophe is just another business opportunity.

Welcome to the atomic age, version 2.0—where the only thing more unstable than the reactors is the maniac in charge of them.

June 3, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Experts warn Trump’s nuclear blitz could trigger ‘Next Three Mile Island’

Brett Wilkins, Common Dreams, May 24, 2025 https://www.rawstory.com/trump-nuclear-2672196220/?fbclid=IwY2xjawKjnDZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETEzMGNjOWI3bFRMSEJiaUlwAR4t6X-H7T5I-o-kJ91nrJSopEuECY5lTfTvuemKX7ecn0rbBfTP2vKInLv2Wg_aem_YNxd4-jClVC7LuYhQWfF_A

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a series of executive orders that will overhaul the independent federal agency that regulates the nation’s nuclear power plants in order to speed the construction of new fissile reactors—a move that experts warned will increase safety risks.

According to a White House statement, Trump’s directives “will usher in a nuclear energy renaissance,” in part by allowing Department of Energy laboratories to conduct nuclear reactor design testing, green-lighting reactor construction on federal lands, and lifting regulatory barriers “by requiring the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to issue timely licensing decisions.”

The Trump administration is seeking to shorten the yearslong NRC process of approving new licenses for nuclear power plants and reactors to within 18 months.

White House Office of Science and Technology Director Michael Kratsios said Friday that “over the last 30 years, we stopped building nuclear reactors in America—that ends now.”

“We are restoring a strong American nuclear industrial base, rebuilding a secure and sovereign domestic nuclear fuel supply chain, and leading the world towards a future fueled by American nuclear energy,” he added.

However, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) warned that the executive orders will result in “all but nullifying” the NRC’s regulatory process, “undermining the independent federal agency’s ability to develop and enforce safety and security requirements for commercial nuclear facilities.”

“This push by the Trump administration to usurp much of the agency’s autonomy as they seek to fast-track the construction of nuclear plants will weaken critical, independent oversight of the U.S. nuclear industry and poses significant safety and security risks to the public,” UCS added.

Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the UCS, said, “Simply put, the U.S. nuclear industry will fail if safety is not made a priority.”

“By fatally compromising the independence and integrity of the NRC, and by encouraging pathways for nuclear deployment that bypass the regulator entirely, the Trump administration is virtually guaranteeing that this country will see a serious accident or other radiological release that will affect the health, safety, and livelihoods of millions,” Lyman added. “Such a disaster will destroy public trust in nuclear power and cause other nations to reject U.S. nuclear technology for decades to come.”

Friday’s executive orders follow reporting earlier this month by NPR that revealed the Trump administration has tightened control over the NRC, in part by compelling the agency to send proposed reactor safety rules to the White House for review and possible editing.

Allison Macfarlane, who was nominated to head the NRC during the Obama administration, called the move “the end of independence of the agency.”

“If you aren’t independent of political and industry influence, then you are at risk of an accident,” Macfarlane warned.

On the first day of his second term, Trump also signed executive orders declaring a dubious “national energy emergency” and directing federal agencies to find ways to reduce regulatory roadblocks to “unleashing American energy,” including by boosting fossil fuels and nuclear power.

May 29, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Experts Warn Trump Attack on Nuclear Regulator Raises Disaster Risk

“Simply put,” said one critic, “the U.S. nuclear industry will fail if safety is not made a priority.”

Brett Wilkins, 24 May 25, https://www.commondreams.org/news/nuclear-regulatory-commission-trump

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed a series of executive orders that will overhaul the independent federal agency that regulates the nation’s nuclear power plants in order to speed the construction of new fissile reactors—a move that experts warned will increase safety risks.

According to a White House statement, Trump’s directives “will usher in a nuclear energy renaissance,” in part by allowing Department of Energy laboratories to conduct nuclear reactor design testing, green-lighting reactor construction on federal lands, and lifting regulatory barriers “by requiring the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to issue timely licensing decisions.”

The Trump administration is seeking to shorten the yearslong NRC process of approving new licenses for nuclear power plants and reactors to withinf 18 months.

“If you aren’t independent of political and industry influence, then you are at risk of an accident.”

White House Office of Science and Technology Director Michael Kratsios said Friday that “over the last 30 years, we stopped building nuclear reactors in America—that ends now.”

“We are restoring a strong American nuclear industrial base, rebuilding a secure and sovereign domestic nuclear fuel supply chain, and leading the world towards a future fueled by American nuclear energy,” he added.

However, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) warned that the executive orders will result in “all but nullifying” the NRC’s regulatory process, “undermining the independent federal agency’s ability to develop and enforce safety and security requirements for commercial nuclear facilities.”

“This push by the Trump administration to usurp much of the agency’s autonomy as they seek to fast-ttrack the construction of nuclear plants will weaken critical, independent oversight of the U.S. nuclear industry and poses significant safety and security risks to the public,” UCS added.

Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the UCS, said, “Simply put, the U.S. nuclear industry will fail if safety is not made a priority.”

“By fatally compromising the independence and integrity of the NRC, and by encouraging pathways for nuclear deployment that bypass the regulator entirely, the Trump administration is virtually guaranteeing that this country will see a serious accident or other radiological release that will affect the health, safety, and livelihoods of millions,” Lyman added. “Such a disaster will destroy public trust in nuclear power and cause other nations to reject U.S. nuclear technology for decades to come.”

Friday’s executive orders follow reporting earlier this month by NPR that revealed the Trump administration has tightened control over the NRC, in part by compelling the agency to send proposed reactor safety rules to the White House for review and possible editing.

Allison Macfarlane, who was nominated to head the NRC during the Obama administration, called the move “the end of independence of the agency.”

“If you aren’t independent of political and industry influence, then you are at risk of an accident,” Macfarlane warned.

On the first day of his second term, Trump also signed executive orders declaring a dubious “national energy emergency” and directing federal agencies to find ways to reduce regulatory roadblocks to “unleashing American energy,” including by boosting fossil fuels and nuclear power.

The rapid advancement and adoption of artificial intelligence systems is creating a tremendous need for energy that proponents say can be met by nuclear power. The Three Mile Island nuclear plant—the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history—is being revived with funding from Microsoft, while Google parent company Alphabet, online retail giant Amazon, and Facebook owner Meta are among the competitors also investing in nuclear energy.

“Do we really want to create more radioactive waste to power the often dubious and questionable uses of AI?” Johanna Neumann, Environment America Research & Policy Center’s senior director of the Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy, asked in December.

“Big Tech should recommit to solutions that not only work but pose less risk to our environment and health,” Neumann added.

May 26, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

White House weighs overhaul of Nuclear Regulatory Commission

E and E News, By Francisco “A.J.” Camacho | 05/14/2025 

Draft White House executive orders would overhaul nuclear regulation and hand the Department of Energy secretary new powers to approve advanced reactor designs and projects — placing a nuclear safety gatekeeper directly under President Donald Trump.

A review by POLITICO’s E&E News of the language in four separate draft orders shows that nuclear advocates in the Trump administration are looking for ways to bypass the independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission and challenge its central claim over nuclear safety standards.

“This is the detailed, agency-specific effort to override the historic independent agency construct,” Stephen Burns, former chair of the NRC during the Obama administration, said in an interview.

Burns emphasized that many of the reforms outlined in the draft orders are already being implemented under the ADVANCE Act that Congress passed last year. He questioned the necessity and merits of White House micromanagement.

“Everybody should be worried about that, especially because we depend on nuclear power plants for about 20 percent of our electricity across this country,” said Emily Hammond, a former DOE deputy general counsel and current George Washington University law professor. “That’s an important segment of low-carbon electricity, and if it’s not safe, that’s a huge gap to fill.”

It isn’t clear when or if any of the draft orders will land on Trump’s desk. But as written now, the drafts return to a theme laid out in many of Trump’s energy orders: Radical policy overhauls are needed to power the rapidly growing U.S. tech industry.

Efforts to restart large nuclear plants along with private-sector investment and Department of Energy support for small modular reactor technology are pushing the industry forward after decades of little or no growth. The government and big technology firms say they hope to plug AI data centers into nuclear power plants that can provide around-the-clock generation.

But in asserting more direct control over the NRC, some nuclear boosters fear more harm than good. Trump’s February executive order subjects “significant regulatory actions” to review by the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, or OIRA.

Judi Greenwald, executive director of the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, said adding the OIRA review of either technical nuclear safety issues or minor activities would make NRC less efficient and introduce uncertainty into licensing timelines.

“NRC’s reputation as a trusted regulator is important to the public, to industry, and to potential customers of U.S. nuclear technology both here and abroad,” Greenwald said. “We don’t want changing political winds in either direction to undermine NRC’s credibility.”

Sources with direct knowledge of how NRC and the White House are handling the February order have told E&E News that OIRA has instructed the agency to submit all draft rules. OIRA will decide on a case-by-case basis if a given regulation is “significant.” If it is, the White House will conduct a second review that may entail comments or edits. The draft rules will then be returned to the commission.

People familiar with policy discussions say OIRA has already deemed reactor safety rules to be “significant” enough for a deeper White House review. The proposed “Part 53” advanced reactor rule and updates to environmental standards are also considered likely to trigger a second review.

The new process also obscures the public record of internal commission deliberations.

“It would potentially run afoul of the Sunshine Act,” said Adam Stein, nuclear energy innovation director at the pro-nuclear think tank Breakthrough Institute. “The Atomic Energy Act does not say the commission will send regulations to OIRA for approval. It says that the commission will decide.”

The prospect of stripping away much of the NRC’s independence has rattled Republicans and Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) said in February that he’s willing to give the administration “the benefit of the doubt” as it tries to bring more political control over independent agencies. “Everyone should be able to agree that regulatory authorities like the NRC should not be involved in the day-to-day political struggles that occur here in Washington, D.C.,” he said.

Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) characterized any White House effort to exert more control over the NRC as a “dangerous attempt to serve the interests of Donald Trump and his donors.”

“Undermining the NRC’s independence invites safety risks, regulatory dysfunction, and corruption that threaten the future of nuclear energy in America,” she said.

Adding to the instability is growing speculation about leadership changes at the NRC. The term of Trump-appointed Chair David Wright expires in June, and no renomination has been announced.

“At this point, it would be difficult to get him through the process without a lapse,” Stein said.

Here is what we know about the four draft orders:

Draft Order 1: Overhauling NRC

The White House is circulating draft executive orders that could radically alter nuclear policy. They touch on several fronts, from restructuring the NRC to reorienting federal nuclear research and development priorities to setting a goal to quadruple U.S. nuclear power capacity by 2040.

The first draft viewed by E&E News would order NRC, OIRA, the Department of Government Efficiency and “other agencies” to finalize NRC rules that would establish deadlines for reviewing license applications; reconsider the NRC radiation safety threshold; revise the environmental review process; expedite approvals for reactors that have been tested at DOE and Defense Department sites; and shrink the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, which independently reviews all nuclear licensing actions.

And the agencies, the draft says, would have 18 months to finish this “wholesale regulatory revision” of the NRC with mandatory “reductions in force.”………………………………………………………………….

Draft Order 2: Nuclear R&D

Another draft order would authorize DOE to more directly spearhead pilot and demonstration reactor projects at national laboratories and on other federal lands.

“The Department shall approve at least three reactors pursuant to this pilot program with the goal of completing construction of each of the three reactors by July 4, 2026,” the draft reads.

Experts say that the timeline is nearly impossible at this point.

Draft Order 3: Nuclear for “national security”

A third draft order seeks to boost American nuclear power by leveraging DOE and the Defense and State departments.

The draft would give the secretaries of Defense and Energy 60 days to “identify 9 military facilities at which advanced nuclear technologies can be immediately installed and deployed,” prioritizing bases in the Arctic and Indo-Pacific. Then, the military would move toward installation.

Another section would have the secretary of Energy “site, approve, and authorize the design, construction, and operation of privately-funded advanced nuclear technologies at Department of Energy-owned sites for the purpose of powering AI infrastructure.” It would classify such nuclear power as “defense critical infrastructure” and allow them to connect to the commercial grid……………

Other sections of the draft order would release DOE-held high-assay, low-enriched uranium to private advanced reactor developers and create a new State Department envoy to promote American nuclear exports.

Draft Order 4: Nuclear supply chain

The final draft order primarily focuses on bolstering the nuclear energy supply chain. It would have DOE bolster R&D and deployment of uranium enrichment and nuclear fuel recycling, fund the restart of closed nuclear plants and improve the “nuclear engineering talent pipeline” with other Cabinet departments.

It is unclear how likely Trump is to sign any of these draft executive orders. “Each executive order is almost written from a certain agency’s perspective,” Stein said. “They overlap and conflict in some places probably because they weren’t written together.”……………….. https://www.eenews.net/articles/white-house-weighs-nrc-overhaul/

May 23, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

Don’t vent tritium gas

May 18, 2025 by beyondnuclearinternational

Lab should explore credible alternatives say Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Tewa Women United

The Los Alamos National Laboratory plans to begin large releases of radioactive tritium gas any time after June 2, 2025. The only roadblock to the Lab’s plans is that it needs a “Temporary Authorization” from the New Mexico Environment Department to do so.

Reasons why the New Mexico Environment Department should deny LANL’s request are:

1. The state Environment Department has a duty to protect the New Mexican public. As it states, “Our mission is to protect and restore the environment and to foster a healthy and prosperous New Mexico for present and future generations.” 

2. Why the rush? LANL explicitly admits there is no urgency. According to the Lab’s publicly-released “Questions and Answers” in response to “What is the urgency for this project?” “There is no urgency for this project beyond the broader mission goals to reduce onsite waste liabilities.” 

3. In addition, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) admits that the end time frame for action is 2028, not 2025. Therefore, there is time for deliberate consideration.

4. Contrary to NMED’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act permit for LANL, the Lab has not fulfilled its duty to inform the public via NMED of possible alternatives to its planned tritium releases. According to Tewa Women United, “LANL has told EPA there are 53 alternatives; that list of alternatives, initially requested in 2022, has not yet been disclosed. Tewa Women United has repeatedly asked LANL to provide the public with that list.” 

5. Despite extensive prompting by the Environmental Protection Agency on possible better alternatives, the NNSA categorically rejected any modifications.

6. NNSA’s January 2025 draft LANL Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement had no substantive discussion of the planned tritium releases, much less the required “hard look” at credible alternatives. Further, LANL and NNSA included these planned releases in the “No Action Alternative,” with the specious justification that “The Laboratory and NNSA have been integrating with the EPA and NMED to obtain approval to move forward with the plan to vent the Flanged Tritium Waste Containers currently located in TA-54.” Seeking approval makes them No Action? NNSA and LANL are legally required to consider public comments submitted for the LANL SWEIS. These planned tritium releases should not proceed until NNSA issues a Record of Decision on the final LANL Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement.

7. NNSA’s publicized maximum release of 30,000 curies is merely an administrative decision point at which LANL will stop the venting process to avoid exceeding the Clean Air Act’s 10 millirem public exposure limit for radioactive air emissions. It is not the potential total quantity of tritium that will have been released. LANL’s radioactive air emissions management plan sets an annual administrative limit of 8 millirem for the tritium releases, meaning venting will cease once this limit is reached but may resume in subsequent periods.

8. In addition, these planned releases are not necessarily a one-time event, as indicated above, contrary to what the LANL Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement falsely states.

9. Nor are these planned releases strictly confined to just Area G, as claimed.

10. LANL declares “There are no cumulative impacts from this operation. All limits are conservative, and well within regulatory limits that are protective of the public.” However, one independent report calculates that the effective dose to infants could be three times higher than to adults (therefore likely violating the 10 millirem Clean Air Act standard for “any member of the public”) and all of LANL’s calculated doses would be higher in the event of low wind speeds and low humidity.”  Another independent report noted how tritiated water can pervade every cell in the body while the planned LANL tritium releases are three times the amount of tritium that the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant would release to the ocean over 30 years. 

11. LANL claims “This critical milestone [the planned tritium releases] furthers \ the cleanup of Area G.” But what so-called cleanup means to LANL is “cap and cover” of ~200,000 cubic yards of existing toxic and radioactive wastes at Area G, leaving them permanently buried in unlined pits and shafts as a permanent threat to groundwater. NMED knows this all too well given the draft order it issued to the Lab to excavate and treat all wastes at the smaller Area C waste dump, which LANL categorically opposes. NMED should carefully consider the extent to which approving these planned tritium releases is consistent with its desire for full comprehensive cleanup at the Lab, including Area G.

Recommendation: Given the self-admitted lack of urgency and remaining uncertainties in potential doses, times, locations and ultimate purpose of these planned tritium releases,NMED should deny LANL’s request for a “Temporary Authorization” to proceed until there has been an open and transparent analysis of alternatives and all possible public health impacts.

This fact sheet is available here. For more contact Nuclear Watch New Mexico and Tewa Women United.

And please sign the petition — Petition to Deny LANL’s Request to Release Radioactive Tritium into the Air.

May 20, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment

President Trump to unleash atomic power

May 15, 2025, https://beyondnuclear.org/president-trump-unleashes-atomic-power/

On May 14, 2025, E&ENews updated reports on President Donald Trump’s  four “pre-decisional” White House Executive Orders to radically alter the historic role of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s  (NRC) to oversee the performance of reactor design safety reviews and the regulatory approval of reactor siting, construction and operation of commercial atomic power plants.

In President Trump’s view, the NRC’s overly burdensome regulations are the primary obstacle to guaranteeing the development and deployment of a national “nuclear renaissance.” As a result, The White House is eyeing a “wholesale regulatory revision” of the federal agency that includes mandatory “reductions in force.” Simultaneously, the White House envisages authorizing the US Department of Energy and Department of Defense to instead take charge of quadrupling the current domestic nuclear energy capacity to 400 gigawatts by 2050. In order to achieve this goal, the draft Executive Orders outline 1) “overhauling NRC”; 2) significantly accelerating “nuclear R&D”; 3) redefining commercial nuclear power development as critical infrastructure for the “national security,” and 4) dramatically building out the domestic “nuclear supply chain” to include significantly ramping up domestic uranium mining, milling, enrichment and fabrication of US nuclear fuel.

While no energy generation system is entirely domestically sourced, the US nuclear fuel supply is predominantly sourced through foreign imports. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency reporting in 2025, US domestic uranium mines produce roughly 1% of the uranium concentrate (U3O8) needed to fuel the current US nuclear fleet in 2023.  Foreign imports accounted for 99% of our nation’s U3O8 with 48% coming from Russia and Russia-influenced Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.  Presently, Russia is the only commercially viable global supplier of high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU fuel is less than 20% enriched uranium-235) as is rated for advanced Small Modular Reactor designs, including Bill Gate’s TerraPower Natrium reactor liquid sodium-cooled fast reactor and X-Energy’s Xe-100 high-temperature gas-cooled pebble-bed reactor.

The Trump Administration has declared by a Executive Order in February 2024 that it will no longer recognize any federal agencies as “independent” but rather all federal  agencies are now in the President’s wheelhouse and subject to his supervision and control. All “significant regulatory actions” of the NRC would be reviewed by the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, or OIRA, opening the process to the White House review for comments, edits and influence. E&E news observed the new process “obscures the public record of internal commission deliberations” and is an apparent violation of the Atomic Energy Act which clearly states that it is expressly for the NRC to decide.

The draft order to overhaul the NRC would also require the agency to reconsider its standard for radiation exposure where it now  understands that there is no safe dose of radiation. Dr. Edwin Lyman, a physicist and Director of the Nuclear Power Safety for the Union of Concerned Scientists is quoted in the E&E article to say, “Documented scientific evidence has only indicated that [low-level radiation exposure] is more dangerous than was known decades ago, when these standards were set.” Furthermore, Dr. Lyman adds, “Evidence has emerged about the impact of the level of radiation exposure on cardiovascular disease.”

The White House draft order to reframe nuclear power deployment for “national security” sets up the US Department of Energy and Department of Defense to “work around the NRC-led licensing and safety review processes” by providing the Secretaries of Defense and Energy accelerated schedules to “identify 9 military facilities at which advanced nuclear technologies can be immediately installed and deployed.” Those military base sited nuclear power plants can then provide transmission to the electric grid for commercial power.

It should be alarming that the Trump Executive Orders to fast track the still elusive and unpredictably costly construction of unproven Generation IV reactors by decommissioning the NRC comes at precisely the wrong time.

This is the still the 50th Anniversary Year of the creation of the NRC following the abolition of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission by Congress for its blatant fast track promotion of atomic power plant licensing and a dangerous disregard of public health and safety. Least we forget, too many of those aging and now deteriorating nuclear power stations that  are approaching and have exceeded 50 years of very harsh operating experience of radioactive neutron bombardment, embrittlement and cracking in base metal and dissimilar weld materials, fatigue, corrosion and a combination of extreme heat, pressure and vibration. Nobody knows better the growing level uncertainty, the multitude of technical knowledge gaps and innumerable shrinking reactor safety margins than those NRC nuclear engineers. Certainly, not Trump.

May 19, 2025 Posted by Christina Macpherson | safety, USA | Leave a comment