President Donald Trump signed a series of executive orders Friday focused on speeding up nuclear energy development by reducing regulations that officials said have “choked” the industry for decades.
Many nuclear rules stem from reforms to protect the public after a partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island power plant in Pennsylvania in 1979.
Friday’s orders include directives to clear the regulatory path for the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense to build nuclear reactors on public lands to power defense facilities and artificial intelligence data centers, speed up the review process and encourage mining for the uranium the industry needs.
One executive order also focuses on reorganizing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, an independent agency that serves as a watchdog for public health and safety involving nuclear energy. It directs the agency to prepare for layoffs.
“Mark this day on your calendar: This is going to turn the clock back on over 50 years of over-regulation on industry,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said at the signing.
Nuclear energy made up about 19 percent of U.S. utility-scale energy generation as of 2023, according to the Energy Information Administration. Nuclear power reactors don’t spew greenhouse gases or other air pollutants, but they are expensive and time-consuming to build and involve processes, like waste storage and uranium mining, that have a history of environmental and health harms.
Some experts responding to the executive orders said that deregulation and weakening the NRC could do more harm than good, hindering safety and eroding public trust in nuclear projects.
Potential changes to the NRC are particularly concerning, said John Burrows, energy and climate policy director of the Wyoming Outdoor Council, a group focused on public lands and environmental protection.
“The NRC is really respected as an independent agency free of industry and political influence, and to the extent that these executive orders undermine that, I think it poses [a] significant challenge for public buy-in for a lot of these projects,” Burrows said.
The executive order mandating “reform” to the agency questions the NRC’s safety models and warnings about radiation risks, and criticizes what it calls a “myopic policy of minimizing even trivial risks.” The directive also says that the temporary Department of Government Efficiency, a key part of Trump’s efforts to dismantle agencies, will consult on staffing changes.
A senior White House official said that “total reduction in staff is undetermined at this point,” but noted that the orders “call for a substantial reorganization” of the agency. The NRC order left open the possibility of increasing staff in some areas, such as nuclear reactor licensing, even as others are cut.
“The NRC is assessing the executive orders and will comply with WH directives,” NRC public affairs…
Read More: Trump Signs Executive Orders to Boost Nuclear Energy, Reduce Oversight
