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President Donald Trump signed four executive orders on May 23, 2025 that violate the Atomic Energy Act and effectively terminate the independence of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and its ability to protect the public health and safety in the operation of commercial nuclear facilities. The orders reject settled science on the public health impacts of radiation.
One order will slash the NRC’s staff and subjugate the agency to White House approval of its regulations and licensing decisions. Other orders direct the military and Department of Energy to build commercial nuclear power plants without NRC regulation and oversight. The Pentagon and DOE hardly have a track record of cost-effective contracting and timely production. Multi-billion-dollar cost overruns and years-long delays are the norm, just as they were with nuclear plant construction.
After 60 years of the nuclear power experiment, it is still too expensive and produces radioactive wastes that will be dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years. President Trump's executive orders will not and cannot fix those problems. Turning to nuclear reprocessing, as another of his orders would do, will only make those problems worse, as it has every time before in the U.S. and every other country with a reprocessing program.
There are no known costs for nuclear power. That's why no private utility has begun a project since the last century. No insurance company will write a liability policy for this experimental technology. The industry survives only on taxpayer life support.
Nuclear power is neither green, nor practical. In the last two years alone more new wind and solar electricity generation has been brought online than the U.S. nuclear industry currently generates. It is time to move on.
One order will slash the NRC’s staff and subjugate the agency to White House approval of its regulations and licensing decisions. Other orders direct the military and Department of Energy to build commercial nuclear power plants without NRC regulation and oversight. The Pentagon and DOE hardly have a track record of cost-effective contracting and timely production. Multi-billion-dollar cost overruns and years-long delays are the norm, just as they were with nuclear plant construction.
After 60 years of the nuclear power experiment, it is still too expensive and produces radioactive wastes that will be dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years. President Trump's executive orders will not and cannot fix those problems. Turning to nuclear reprocessing, as another of his orders would do, will only make those problems worse, as it has every time before in the U.S. and every other country with a reprocessing program.
There are no known costs for nuclear power. That's why no private utility has begun a project since the last century. No insurance company will write a liability policy for this experimental technology. The industry survives only on taxpayer life support.
Nuclear power is neither green, nor practical. In the last two years alone more new wind and solar electricity generation has been brought online than the U.S. nuclear industry currently generates. It is time to move on.