Trump signs orders to boost nuclear power, including reduced environmental review
President Trump on Friday signed executive orders that seek to quadruple the nation’s nuclear power, including by cutbacks to health and environmental considerations.
In one such executive order, Trump laments that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) radiation safety standards are too stringent.
“The NRC utilizes safety models that posit there is no safe threshold of radiation exposure and that harm is directly proportional to the amount of exposure,” the order states.
“Those models lack sound scientific basis and produce irrational results, such as requiring that nuclear plants protect against radiation below naturally occurring levels,” it continues. “A myopic policy of minimizing even trivial risks ignores the reality that substitute forms of energy production also carry risk, such as pollution with potentially deleterious health effects.”
Accordingly, the order directs the NRC, an independent agency that regulates nuclear safety, to reconsider its “as low as reasonably achievable” radiation standard and its assumption that radiation and exposure and cancer risk have a linear relationship.
The order, which broadly seeks to overhaul the NRC, also directs the agency to make decisions on whether to approve licenses for new nuclear reactors within 18 months — a process that typically takes multiple years and involves both safety and environmental reviews.
The environmental review process alone typically takes two to three years.
It calls for the nation to quadruple its current nuclear energy capacity by 2050, going from 100 gigawatts in 2024 to 400 gigawatts by midcentury. A gigawatt is enough energy to power 100 million LED light bulbs.
The order also directs the agency to carry out reductions in force and specifically says that staffing and functions agency’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, which provides advice on hazards and radiation protection, among other topics, should be “reduced to the minimum necessary to fulfill ACROSs statutory obligations.”
The overhaul order was one of several nuclear-energy related orders Trump signed Friday.
“It’s a hot industry, it’s a brilliant industry, you have to do it right.” he said of nuclear energy in the Oval Office. “It’s become very safe and environmental.”
However, Democrats described the orders as “dangerous.”
“These executive orders are dangerous and could compromise the safety of nuclear energy in America. The White House should not be playing with the safety of nuclear reactors, which are critical to reducing carbon emissions while meeting growing energy demand,” said Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) in a written statement.
Another order says that the Energy Department should use authorities granted by the Defense Production Act to seek agreements with nuclear energy companies to allow the government to procure uranium for nuclear weapons.
It directs the department, within 120 days, to come up with a plan to expand domestic uranium enrichment for both energy and defense purposes.
It also sets the goal of having 10 new large nuclear reactors under construction by 2030.
Broadly, the Trump administration has sought to bolster domestic energy production from sources including fossil fuels and nuclear.
White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios described the orders as Trump taking “historic action to ensure America’s energy dominance and provide affordable, reliable, safe and secure energy to the American people.”
“With these actions, President Trump is telling the world that America will build again, and American nuclear renaissance can begin,” Kratsios told reporters.
Nuclear energy’s supporters point out that it is carbon-free and dispatchable, meaning it can be turned on and off as needed.
Its opponents raise concerns about radiation exposure, disposal of nuclear waste and the possibility of nuclear meltdowns.
Trump was also expected to sign a separate executive order related to scientific research more generally.
Updated at 6:16 p.m. EDT.
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Comment
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Comment by Thinklike A. Mountain 2 hours ago
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Isn’t it time for the industry to move out of its parent’s basement?
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/05/will_clean_energy_ever...
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Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
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(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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