Feds Take 'Wrecking Ball' to Nuclear Safety Rules

The Trump administration has quietly rewritten nuclear safety rules as it races to jump-start a new generation of reactors—and it hasn't told the public what changed. Documents obtained by NPR show the Department of Energy has overhauled more than a dozen internal orders that govern everything from radiation limits and groundwater protection to site security and accident investigations.

• The new directives, sent to companies building experimental small modular reactors, slash more than 750 pages of requirements, cutting security guidance from more than 500 pages to 23 and dropping or softening multiple environmental and worker protections, NPR reports. None of the revised orders has been posted in the DOE's public database, even as they are now being used to review 11 reactor designs from 10 private firms.

• Many of the edits replace words like "prohibited" with words like "should be avoided," even when it comes to discharging radioactive material. The DOE has removed the decades-old ALARA—As Low As Reasonably Achievable—standard, which pushed operators to keep radiation exposure as low as reasonably achievable, eased restrictions on radioactive discharges into sewers and groundwater, and eliminated a requirement that each key safety system have a dedicated engineer responsible for it.
• Guidance on radioactive waste handling is condensed, detailed security requirements are gone, and full chapters on securing nuclear material have been replaced with bullet points.

• The changes flow from Trump executive orders signed last May, which ordered the DOE to approve at least three experimental reactors and have each reach criticality by July 4, 2026, an unusually tight schedule by industry standards. DOE officials told industry leaders their goal was to ensure "the government is no longer a barrier" and promised a "streamlined" authorization path, supported by a special "Concierge Team" that reports to the energy secretary and helps companies speed applications.
• Former regulators and nuclear safety experts say the substance of the rewrites, and the decision to do them out of public view, risk undermining both safety and trust.
• "They're taking a wrecking ball to the system of nuclear safety and security regulation oversight that has kept the US from having another Three Mile Island accident," says Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "I am absolutely worried about the safety of these reactors."