The EFMR Monitoring Group is a non-profit, non-partisan organization which monitors radiation levels surrounding Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Susquehanna Steam Electric Station and Three Mile Island Nuclear Station.
Court says NRC doesn’t have to factor climate extremes into licensing
July 21, 2026
In a shocking and disappointing decision — and at a time when Texas is flooding, wildfires are making the air unbreathable and New York City is under a tornado warning — a DC court has ruled against an appeal by Beyond Nuclear and the Sierra Club. The court’s decision effectively allows the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to ignore future (or even the clearly present) harsher and more violent climate change impacts on the safe operation of nuclear power plants, to which the NRC is presently awarding license extensions out to 60, 80 and even possibly 100 years.
Below is the Beyond Nuclear press release.
NEWS FROM BEYOND NUCLEAR
Court decision to allow nuclear regulator to ignore climate impacts on future reactor operations does not serve public safety
Groups vow to continue their challenge to extreme reactor license extensions
TAKOMA PARK, MD, July 21, 2026 — A unanimous decision by three US Court Of Appeals judges in the District Of Columbia to deny an appeal based on the risks of climate change on nuclear reactor safety is a shocking disregard for the ever worsening weather conditions that could put reactor communities at grave risk, said Beyond Nuclear today, one of the groups that brought the appeal.
The petition denied by the court was brought by Beyond Nuclear and the Sierra Club, against the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), et al. The NRC is federally mandated to protect public safety. The NEI is the lobbying arm and trade group representing the nuclear power industry.
The petitioners argued that the NRC and industry did not adequately consider how aging components and climate change would affect the risk of severe accidents involving reactor-core damage. Of greatest concern is the extension of operating the licenses of the country’s already aging nuclear power plants well beyond the initial 40-year licensing period and the NRC’s refusal to view the more extreme conditions caused by climate change as risk factors to future safe operation.
“We are stunned by the court’s decision, which let the NRC get away with the generalized claim that large conservatisms in their accident risk analyses can cover the unique and site-specific effects of climate change,” said attorney Diane Curran, who argued the case on behalf of Beyond Nuclear and the Sierra Club. “The NRC has never provided a shred of evidence to show that it has, in fact, evaluated the effects of climate change on accident risk — so how could it know that?”
Paul Gunter, director of the reactor oversight project at Beyond Nuclear said, “This decision allows the NRC to consider future safety challenges to nuclear plants caused by worsening climate conditions by looking in the rear-view mirror. What we are already experiencing today with raging wildfires and extreme flooding, sea-level rise and more frequent violent storms due to climate change, sends a warning that evaluating reactor safety based on the worst climate conditions of the past is not only unrealistic but reckless.
“Just this past week we have seen extreme climate change-driven conditions with raging wildfires in Canada that could equally easily happen in the hotter United States and catastrophic flooding in Texas,” Gunter said. “It is shocking that the court accepted the NRC’s argument that under future climate conditions the chances of a severe accident are ‘small.’ Instead of evaluating the real risks, the court decided to adjudicate whether or not the NRC’s environmental review was ‘reasonably explained.’ This does not serve the interests of public safety,” Gunter said.
Beyond Nuclear is carefully evaluating its legal options and will continue to challenge the extreme license extensions at the Oconee (SC), Peach Bottom (PA) and North Anna (VA) nuclear power plants.
“Oconee is of particularly alarming concern because it sits downstream of two earthen rock-filled dams and two million acre feet of water,” Gunter pointed out. “In bringing this case, we were striving to ensure that this community does not become the tragic test case for a failure to guarantee robust safety regulations at our nation’s nuclear plants for the remainder of their operating lives.”
Roglans-Ribas had just finished arguing that any future free of fossil fuels would need nuclear power, which provides carbon-free energy 24 hours a day, supplying the reliability lacking in renewables like solar and wind.
Gundersen called that claim a “marketing ploy.”
“We all know that the wind doesn’t blow consistently and the sun doesn’t shine every day,” he said, “but the nuclear industry would have you believe that humankind is smart enough to develop techniques to store nuclear waste for a quarter of a million years, but at the same time human kind is so dumb we can’t figure out a way to store solar electricity overnight. To me that doesn’t make sense.”
France Cuts 6.4 GW of Nuclear Power as Heatwave Grips the Country
France’s nuclear power generation was slashed by 6.4 gigawatts (GW) on Monday amid a prolonged and intense heatwave that hiked river temperatures and limited the ability of the power plants to use the water to cool reactors.
As many as eight reactors in France, which is Europe’s leader in nuclear power generation, were forced to curtail power output, according to data from the plants’ operator EDF and grid operator RTE cited by Reuters.
The 6.4 GW of curtailed power output was equivalent to 14% of France’s overall power demand as of Monday morning.
The reactors where output has been limited include Saint Alban 1 and 2, reactors 3, 4, and 5 at Bugey, Golfech 2, and Blayais 1 and 3.
The Golfech 2 and Bugey 3 reactors were taken fully offline, while the other six were operating at reduced rates as of Monday morning.
This is not the first time France has had to curb output at reactors and limit the nuclear power production, due to high summer temperatures.
France’s nuclear power generation accounts for around 70% of its electricity mix, and when its reactors are fully operational, it is a net exporter of electricity to other European countries.
Despite the curbs of nuclear generation during the current heatwave, data from RTE suggests that France would remain a net exporter with over 10 GW of power exported to France’s neighboring countries on Monday.
The hydropower generation would also be a concern amid the heatwave that has lasted a least a week and is expected to continue at least until Wednesday this week.
With temperatures topping 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) for days, red alerts have been issued throughout France amid the heatwave, and thousands of people have died of heat-related conditions since late June, when the record-breaking extreme summer temperatures started to disrupt life. Even the most famous and prestigious cycling event, the Tour de France, held a shortened stage on Sunday for the first time ever, due to the extreme heat.
In a social media post on Friday, the NRC explained the decision amid efforts from Constellation Energy to restart the reactor.
“The fresh fuel will stay safely stored on site while we review Constellation’s request to restart the plant,” the NRC's update read.
The announcement comes as artificial intelligence continues to put strains on the US energy grid, prompting renewed interest in nuclear energy.
The restart of the Three Mile Island Unit 1 reactor near Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania – now named Crane Clean Energy Centre – is rooted in the AI boom.
But the NRC's move is not without controversy, as the site carries significant historical stigma.
The plan to restart the plant is the result of a 2024 announcement of a partnership between Constellation and Microsoft. As part of the deal, Microsoft agreed to a 20-year power purchase agreement with Constellation to help provide energy for its data centres.
The agreement made international headlines, however, because TMI Unit 1 is adjacent to TMI Unit 2, the site of one of the largest nuclear accidents in US history.
In late March 1979, the core of TMI Unit 2 was partially exposed, prompting a temporary evacuation of the nearby area and a lengthy clean-up around Middletown that continues to this day.
As for TMI Unit 1, it was operational until 2019, when the economics of nuclear power at the time forced its closure.
“The global shift towards AI is reshaping economies, accelerating innovation, and becoming foundational to how technology is built and used,” Microsoft's 2026 environmental sustainability report read.
“It is also increasing demand for the energy, water, land and materials required to support that growth. The facility offers a model for evaluating how conventional fission could support Microsoft’s long-term carbon free energy portfolio.”
Although public sentiment towards nuclear energy has improved in recent decades, worries about safety are still prevalent, especially at the TMI site.
Eric Epstein, who lives near the site of the TMI reactor and serves as director of Three Mile Island Alert, a grass roots energy safety organisation, said the recent fuel storage developments confirm his scepticism about the NRC.
“This announcement further demonstrates that the licensing process is taking place at the intersection of the inane and the insane,” he told The National.
Mr Epstein has previously criticised the NRC and accused it of being more of a cheerleader than a regulator.
“It underscores the farce being played out at Three Mile Island,” he said. “Who pays and stores fuel thinking the licence may not be approved? It's a done deal.”
Meanwhile, the NRC has announced several reforms and reorganisations in recent months, while at the same time hitting back against critics like Mr Epstein who have said that the commission has essentially turned into a rubber stamp for the nuclear industry.
The NRC has said it will continue “safely enabling nuclear technologies, including consideration of the Crane restart project” – indicating it is not, in fact, a done deal.
Constellation Energy, however, seems optimistic.
“Crane Clean Energy Centre is surging forward,” an Instagram post on the nuclear plant's account read, citing a recent waiver granted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that would make it easier for the reactor to reconnect to the US grid.
The post said that if Constellation was successful in meeting the NRC's safety requirements, TMI Unit 1 could be “on track to restart in 2027".
The renewable surge partially reflects former President Joe Biden’s efforts to boost wind and solar generation, with a wave of projects that began under Biden coming online after he left office. But it also underscores the sector’s continued resilience in the face of attacks from Trump, who has ended tax credits for renewable projects, sought to restrict their development on public land and boosted fossil fuels like coal.
The low cost and relative ease of building solar, in particular, has somewhat insulated the renewable industry from the policy headwinds in Washington.
“If you’re a utility, and you need to build generation and you want to build generation, you’re going to build what’s fast and cheap. Solar is fast and cheap,” said Nora Brownell, a former Pennsylvania utility regulator who also served on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. “I think they are making business decisions.”
