Trump DOE Secretly Slashes Nuclear Safety and Security Rules
An NPR investigation reveals the Trump administration’s Department of Energy has quietly rewritten more than a dozen internal nuclear safety orders governing a fast‑tracked program to build at least three experimental small modular reactors by July 4, 2026, without making the new rules public. The revised DOE directives, shared only with reactor developers, cut over 750 pages of prior requirements, sharply relaxing security standards, loosening groundwater and environmental protections, eliminating at least one safety role, reducing record‑keeping obligations, and raising the radiation‑exposure threshold that triggers an official accident investigation. Former NRC chair Christopher Hanson says secretly weakening safeguards "is not the best way to engender" public trust in nuclear power, while Union of Concerned Scientists’ Edwin Lyman warns DOE is "taking a wrecking ball" to the oversight system that has prevented another Three Mile Island–type accident. DOE, which is overseeing billions in public and private investment in small modular reactors heavily backed by tech giants seeking cheap power for AI data centers, previously claimed it remains committed to "the highest standards of safety" but has not commented on the specific rule changes. The disclosure is fueling alarm among independent experts and is likely to intensify calls in Congress for transparency, formal rulemaking, and possibly external regulation of DOE‑authorized commercial reactors, given the stakes for U.S. communities and critical infrastructure.
📌 Key Facts
- DOE has overhauled more than a dozen nuclear‑safety departmental orders for new experimental reactors, circulating them to companies but not releasing them to the public.
- NPR’s analysis finds the new orders cut more than 750 pages from prior versions, leaving only about one‑third as many pages and weakening requirements for security, environmental and groundwater protection, safety roles, record‑keeping and accident investigations.
- The changes apply to a DOE program to build at least three small modular experimental commercial reactors by July 4, 2026, a sector backed by billions from private investors and tech firms like Amazon, Google and Meta seeking power for AI operations.
- Former NRC Chair Christopher Hanson and Union of Concerned Scientists safety director Edwin Lyman publicly criticize the secret rewrites, warning they erode decades of U.S. nuclear‑safety practice that has helped avoid another Three Mile Island–type event.
- DOE has previously asserted that safety is its "top priority" in developing new reactor designs but did not address NPR’s specific findings about the relaxed internal orders.
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