Published May 27, 2025
Media Contact
Timothy Judson
Executive Director
timj@nirs.org
301-270-6477
WASHINGTON (May 27, 2025)—President Trump issued executive orders today that violate the Atomic Energy Act and effectively terminate the independence of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)’s and its ability to protect the public health and safety in the operation of commercial nuclear facilities. The orders also reject settled science on the public health impacts of radiation, putting the safety of workers and the American people at risk.
Below is a statement by Timothy Judson, Executive Director of NIRS:
After 70 years of promoting nuclear power, it is still too expensive and produces radioactive wastes that will be dangerous for over a million years. President Trump’s executive orders will not and cannot fix those problems. Turning to nuclear reprocessing, as one of them 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 is no “fixing” or “reviving” nuclear energy. The orders are a shortsighted, wasteful effort that will only make nuclear power less safe and more polluting. They will further weaken the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and undermine its ability to protect public safety and national security–in direct violation of the Atomic Energy Act–and they will directly endanger the health of workers and people who live downwind, downstream, or near nuclear facilities.
One order ignores decades of scientific findings and thousands of families’ tragic experiences with radioactivity, directing the NRC to reduce radiation protections. The National Academy of Sciences has repeatedly found that radiation increases the risk of cancer and other diseases. Only kooks and crackpots under the spell of a Dr. Strangelove-like infatuation with nuclear power say otherwise.
Another order will slash the NRC’s staff and subjugate the agency to White House approval of its regulations and licensing decisions, ending even the pretense that an independent regulator will be there to protect the public health and safety. The root cause of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear meltdowns in 2011 was found to be the subjugation of a nuclear safety regulator to politicians and corporations. That disaster displaced over 100,000 people, shut down the whole nuclear industry, and will cost Japan up to $700 billion. President Trump’s executive orders will increase the chances that could happen here.
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. Billion-dollar cost overruns and years-long delays are the norm, just as they were with nuclear utilities. Combining the Defense Department and the nuclear industry is a recipe for fiscal disaster. We can only pray that any reactors built through such a scheme never end up operating. But far from “government efficiency” or “energy security,” Don Trump’s quixotic tilting at reactors will prove to be a futile, wasteful exercise that will cost taxpayers dearly.
The truth is, we can meet all of our energy needs, safely, securely, and affordably, with renewable energy sources that are ready to deploy today. In the last two years alone, the world brought online as much new wind and solar as the entire nuclear industry worldwide can generate after 60 years. If President Trump wants to lead, that is the direction.”