The Trump Admin Is Doing Something Horrifying to Workers at Nuclear Facilities

https://nz.news.yahoo.com/trump-administration-doing-something-horrifying-202055435.html

The Trump Administration Is Doing Something Horrifying to Workers at Nuclear Facilities

Joe Wilkins, Wed, 1 April 2026

It isn’t just the guys handling plutonium who need to worry about radiation — every US nuclear worker, from the plumbers patching leaks to the janitors mopping floors, has a reason to be on guard.

New reporting by High Country News detailed the startling impact the Trump administration is having on the safety of nuclear energy workers.  As part of the administration’s “nuclear renaissance,” the US Department of Energy (DOE) has begun stripping back effective safety regulations that had previously limited workers’ exposure to deadly radiation.

“They’re pulling away from what’s kept us safe all these years,” Bradley Clawson, a former nuclear energy worker at Idaho National Laboratory, told HCN.  “In the long run it helped us as workers.  It was keeping us from getting a higher dose.”

Following four executive orders aimed at nuclear deregulation, both the DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have taken an increasingly lax view of safety at both federal nuclear projects like labs and cleanup sites, as well as commercial energy facilities.  Under Trump, these agencies no longer seem to operate on the long-held assumption that even a small amount of radiation exposure is bad for human health.  Instead, speed is the name of the game.

The language in one May 2025 executive order makes its deregulatory intent clear in no uncertain terms: “In particular, the NRC shall reconsider reliance on the linear no-threshold (LNT) model for radiation exposure and the ‘as low as reasonably achievable’ standard, which is predicated on LNT,” the order read.

At Los Alamos National Laboratory, for example, non-nuclear workers like plumbers and metalworkers are exposed to some amount of radiation, but as HCN notes, the Trump administration has forced the site to double its annual output of nuclear cores.

In a scathing letter to various government administrators, a group of organizations made up of doctors, environmental activists, and researchers called the safety rollbacks a “deliberate subversion of science and public health in favor of corporate interests.”

“Accepting weaker radiation protections amounts to accepting an ever-increasing level of avoidable human disease and suffering,” the letter continues.

The deregulations come as nuclear facilities across the US face a growing shortage of trained and experienced staff — an issue Trump admin energy department layoffs hasn’t exactly helped, and which is in direct contradiction with the White House’s stated goal of jumpstarting America’s nuclear energy capacity.

Facing lagging staff numbers but a rapidly changing nuclear energy landscape, many facilities have to turned to third-party contractors in order to keep up.  The result, critics say, is a breakdown in long-term safety culture as contractors move from site to site.  One prime example of this came in October, when a contractor at Michigan’s Palisade Power Plant fell into a reactor cavity.

Constellation Energy tops S&P 500 losers after no news on power deals for data centers

https://seekingalpha.com/news/4570904-constellation-energy-tops-sp-500-losers-after-no-news-on-power-deals-for-data-centers

Constellation's stock has fallen more than 10% since its quarterly investor call on Monday, on which CEO Joe D. announced exactly zero new deals with AI companies since leading investors to believe it would have contracts  to sell 'at least 1 GW of nuclear power to a tech company at "premium pricing (15+ year terms)."'

The stock price took an immediate dive on Tuesday, rallied a bit yesterday, but has continued to fall today. This isn't only a short-term trend. The stock price is down more than 30% over the last 5.5 months. It fell even lower by early February, then rose again on the news that AI power deals were coming. But that didn't come through before the investor call.

Tim Judson (he/him) 

Executive Director 

Nuclear Information and Resource Service  

unceded Nacotchtank and Piscataway territory

POLICY NRC to add new items to categorical exclusions list.

POLICY

NRC to add new items to categorical exclusions list

19h ago Nuclear News

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has identified five categories of action to add to its list of categorical exclusions to reduce its documentation work under National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures.

These revisions are included in the final rule, “Categorical exclusions from environmental review,” which was published in the Federal Register on March 30. The final rule will become effective on April 29.

“Revisions to the categorical exclusions will (1) clarify and address inconsistencies in the application of categorical exclusions across licensing and regulatory programs and (2) eliminate the need to prepare EAs [environmental assessments] for NRC regulatory actions that have no significant effect on the human environment,” the final rule’s regulatory analysis states.

The new additions: According to the FR notice, the NRC’s categorical exclusions include “administrative, organizational, and procedural amendments to certain types of NRC regulations, licenses, and certificates; minor changes related to application filing procedures; certain personnel and procurement activities; and activities for which environmental review by the NRC is excluded by statute.”

Below are the five new categorical exclusions:

• Actions that are administrative, procedural, or solely financial in nature, including exemptions and orders pertaining to these actions.
• Amendments to 10 CFR 72.214, “List of approved spent fuel storage casks,” for new, amended, revised, or renewed certificates of compliance for cask designs used for spent fuel storage.
• Approvals provided for under the requirements of 10 CFR 50.55a, “Codes and standards.”
• Certain changes to requirements for fire protection, emergency planning, physical security, cybersecurity, and quality assurance.
• Changes to extend implementation dates of certain new NRC requirements that were previously found to not result in an environmental impact.

Background: NEPA requires federal agencies to assess the environmental impact of some of their actions prior to deciding whether to move forward. Each action falls under one of three categories: categorical exclusion (for actions with no significant environmental impact), environmental assessment (EA), and environmental impact statement (EIS). If the agency believes an action is not likely to cause a significant impact on the environment, the submission of an EA is required. If the agency believes the environmental impact of an action is significant, the more comprehensive EIS must be submitted.

If it is determined that something in a given category has no significant effect on the environment, then the agency can establish a categorical exclusion for that item.

The NRC published an advance notice of proposed rulemaking on May 7, 2021, after an NRC review of its environmental programs and organization identified potential opportunities to add, remove, or enhance its list of exclusions. A public comment opportunity elicited more than 2,300 comments, most of them duplicates. According to the FR notice, the NRC evaluated and considered 20 comments during the drafting of the proposed rule that was ultimately published on July 2, 2024.

Other revisions: Along with the new additions, NRC staff will eliminate two existing categorical exclusions that are no longer necessary because they are obsolete. It will also reorganize the list of categorical exclusions to “eliminate redundancy, add clarity, and improve consistency and efficiency.” This reorganization would eliminate some overlapping actions and consolidate others.

By reducing the number of required environmental assessments and requests for additional information, the final rule could save about 1,030 staff hours per year over the next 10 years, according to the NRC’s regulatory analysis.

[decomm_wkg] GAO: Clarification of HLW definition could save DOE billions

WASTE MANAGEMENT

GAO: Clarification of HLW definition could save DOE billions

Tue, Mar 31, 2026, 10:29AM Nuclear News

A photo from inside the AX-101 underground waste tank at the DOE’s Hanford Site in Washington. (Photo: DOE)

A clearer definition of what constitutes high-level radioactive waste could save the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management “tens of billions of dollars” in waste management costs and accelerate its cleanup schedule by decades, according to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

DOE-EM’s efforts to manage waste resulting from legacy spent nuclear fuel reprocessing have been hindered for decades by the ambiguity of the statutory definition of HLW as laid out in the Atomic Energy Act and Nuclear Waste Policy Act, the report states. While admitting that the DOE has taken steps to overcome this ambiguity, the GAO says that the department has not fully evaluated all available opportunities to treat and dispose of waste more economically as either transuranic or low-level radioactive waste.

“By systematically evaluating these opportunities and pursuing them to the maximum extent possible, [DOE-EM] could accelerate its cleanup mission and save at least tens of billions of dollars,” the GAO report says.

The report, Nuclear Waste Cleanup: Clarifying Definition of High-Level Radioactive Waste Could Help DOE Save Tens of Billions of Dollars (GAO-26-108018), was published on March 25.

Recommendations: Acknowledging the complexity of the issue and the implications that revising the statutory definition of HLW could have, the GAO suggests that Congress consider convening a panel of experts to recommend specific revisions to the HLW definition to address any ambiguities.

The GAO is also recommending a Blue Ribbon Commission comprising a group of relevant experts from, for example, key agencies, industry, and academia who could develop and recommend specific revisions to the definition of HLW in the AEA and NWPA and report these recommendations to Congress within 12 months.

The GAO also recommends that DOE-EM “systematically evaluate opportunities to treat and dispose of certain waste associated with reprocessing as something other than HLW and communicate to Congress regarding its efforts to implement these opportunities as well as actions Congress can take to minimize or eliminate any barriers impeding [DOE-EM’s] ability to pursue them.”

In response to the report, the DOE agreed with the GAO’s recommendations.

The tools at hand: The GAO report notes that DOE-EM has three main classification tools it can use to determine that certain waste associated with reprocessing is not HLW:

• The Waste Incidental to Reprocessing evaluation, as outlined in DOE Manual 435.1-1.
• Section 3116 of the Ronald W. Reagan National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2005.
• The DOE’s 2019 HLW interpretation, which was incorporated into DOE Manual 435.1-1.

“While the tools provide [DOE-EM] with formal requirements and a process for clarifying which waste is not HLW and may be safely treated and disposed of as non-HLW, the three tools have shortcomings that impede [DOE-EM’s] ability to progress with its cleanup of certain waste streams,” the report states.

Specifically, the GAO finds that the three classification tools do not provide a consistent radioactive threshold at which waste is considered HLW; do not fully apply at the DOE sites involved in cleaning up reprocessing waste (the Hanford and Savannah River Sites, Idaho National Laboratory, and the West Valley Demonstration Project); and can be an expensive and extensive process to use, leading to delays.

In addition, the GAO report states that the lack of clarity in the definition of HLW has left DOE-EM vulnerable to lawsuits when applying the classification tools. This includes risks posed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling overturning the Chevron doctrine. That decision may put the department in greater litigation risk, as courts may no longer defer to the DOE’s interpretation of the AEA and NWPA regarding what constitutes HLW, simply because the law is ambiguous.

Lancaster County to get Pa. funds for Three Mile Island emergency planning

Lancaster County to get Pa. funds for Three Mile Island emergency planning

• TOM LISI | Staff Writer      Mar 24, 2026

Constellation Energy Corp. hopes to restart Crane Clean Energy Center, formerly Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 reactor, to supply Microsoft data centers with low-carbon energy.SUZETTE WENGER | Staff Photographer

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With the Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear reactor slated to reopen next year, Lancaster County is set to receive additional state funding for nuclear emergency response planning.

The Board of Commissioners on Wednesday is set to approve a $36,500 grant from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency to help cover the salary of a response manager who is updating the county’s response plans to a nuclear disaster for the Lancaster County Emergency Management Division.

The Lancaster County Salary Board approved the creation of the radiological planner position in October.

The plans include “everything from how we communicate and notify people, as well as to how we’re going to evacuate people, so we have somebody specifically focused on rebuilding all of that from the ground up,” Department of Public Safety Director Brian Pasquale said.

In 2024, Constellation Energy announced plans to reopen Unit 1 of the Three Mile Island facility and gave it a new name — Crane Clean Energy Center. The sole customer for the facility’s 835 megawatts of expected output is Microsoft, which has signed a 20-year agreement to buy power for its growing network of data centers.

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READ NEXT: An inside look at reopening Three Mile Island’s nuclear plant expected in 2027

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In December, Constellation Chief Executive Joe Dominguez said he expects the facility to be operational in the summer of 2027, a year earlier than initially planned. He said its opening will come at a pivotal time to “power this important revolution in AI.”

Unit 2 has remained closed since its partial meltdown in 1979, and its owner, Energy Solutions, in the process of decommissioning the reactor.

Unit 1 remained in operation until 2019, when Constellation closed it, citing cost concerns.

On Monday, Lancaster County’s emergency preparedness team held its first tabletop exercise related to the reopening of the Three Mile Island site, Pasquale said at Tuesday’s commissioners work session.

Tabletop exercises are a planning tool to game out specific real-world scenarios to put plans and procedures to the test in a low-stakes environment.

The PEMA dollars for the county comes from the Radiological Emergency Response Program, funded by fees assessed to nuclear operators.

Amazon-backed nuclear reactor group X-energy files for IPO

https://www.ft.com/content/22d28650-5536-4446-92ba-b094f56d13fa?syn-25a6b1a6=1

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An Amazon-backed small modular nuclear reactor company is filing for an initial public offering amid rising investor interest in nuclear energy. X-energy submitted a draft registration statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, putting it on track to go public sometime in the early summer. The IPO would be the latest for developers of small modular nuclear reactors, which have been touted as a potential solution for rapid electricity demand growth caused largely by data centres, but also the electrification of cars and household appliances. According to data from BloombergNEF, US data centre power demand is set to climb from 34.7 gigawatts in 2024 to 106GW by 2035. X-energy is building an SMR that uses helium as a coolant instead of water, the industry standard. Supplies of helium have been severely disrupted by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid the Iran war, pushing up commercial prices. “Spot helium prices could spike by 50 per cent to 200 per cent in severe shortage scenarios,” according to Fitch analysts. Amazon backed the company in October 2024, anchoring a $400mn fundraising round along with Citadel’s Ken Griffin. The ecommerce giant took two seats on the company’s board. In November X-energy completed a $700mn fundraising round led by Jane Street, ARK Invest, Galvanize, Hood River Capital Management, Point 72, Reaves Asset Management and XTX Ventures. In addition to Amazon, it has secured contracts with FTSE 100-listed Centrica and Dow. While X-energy has not received full approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build its reactor, in February the agency licensed the company to make nuclear fuel for advanced reactors at a facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. X-energy declined to state how much it is seeking to raise, or how its shares would be priced. JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Jefferies and Moelis and Company are acting as the lead bookrunners. X-energy would be the fourth publicly traded SMR company, following Nano Nuclear, NuScale Energy and Sam Altman-backed Oklo. Oklo’s stock price has gained 94 per cent over the past year. But Nano and NuScale have lost ground, falling 32 and 27 per cent respectively. Recommended The Big Read The cost of America’s nuclear revival The filing comes as Wall Street investment bankers are gearing up for a series of potentially huge listings later this year. Elon Musk’s rocket group SpaceX and AI start-ups Anthropic and OpenAI have all indicated plans to go public at some point in 2026. Each of the three deals is expected to raise tens of billions of dollars in proceeds, potentially outstripping the total haul from about 200 US IPOs in 2025. Market volatility triggered by the war in Iran could yet scupper bankers’ pipeline, however, just as the economic turmoil sparked by President Donald Trump’s so-called liberation day tariffs last April put several large US tech listings on pause.

(Arnie Gundersen)

Nuclear's cleanup cost threatens the expansion dream

Countries are racing to build new reactors. But we've barely figured out how to clean up the old ones — and the bill is potentially staggering. 

https://www.dw.com/en/nuclears-cleanup-cost-threatens-the-expansion-dream/a-76431361

(Arnie Gundersen)

Safety meltdown: Trump’s weakening of nuclear reactor regulations sparks opposition

The Morning Star, about AGs and others' opposition to the weakening of nuclear regulations.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/safety-meltdown-trumps-weakening-nuclear-reactor-regulations-sparks-opposition

NRC considers eliminating half-century-old radiation standard - E&E News by POLITICO

NRC considers eliminating half-century-old radiation standard - E&E News by POLITICO https://share.google/eQBkPZxBR5nh11tx1

New issue of Parsons Sun is available

Please click on the image below to view the current edition:

[decomm_wkg] Fukushima at Fifteen - Thomas Bass

https://thebulletin.org/2026/03/fukushima-at-15-living-with-radioactive-hot-spots-and-stigma/

[decomm_wkg] "Energy Secretary Backs Restart of Indian Point Nuclear Plant in NY"

"Energy Secretary Backs Restart of Indian Point Nuclear Plant in NY"

​​​​​​​https://www.enr.com/articles/62634-energy-secretary-backs-restart-of-indian-point-nuclear-plant-in-ny

Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Units 2 and 3 - Age-Related Degradation Inspection Report 05000277/2026010 and 05000278/2026020

 

Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Units 2 and 3 - Age-Related Degradation Inspection Report 05000277/2026010 and 05000278/2026020 ADAMS Accession No. ML26068A044 Peach Bottom ARD IR 2026010.pdf

Peach Bottom ARD IR 2026010.pdf

[decomm_wkg] Absolutely ESSENTIAL reading 4 Decom group: Also by PDF attachment

https://www.rogerrapoport.com/latest-writings/detroit-free-press-michigans-risky-palisades-reactor-restart-is-behind-schedule

By Roger Rapoport.  March 2, 2026

Detroit Free Press: Michigan's risky Palisades reactor restart is behind schedule

Just six months after receiving its first operating license for a nuclear reactor, Holtec International’s “unprecedented milestone in U.S. nuclear energy” may be turning into a millstone. 

Holtec is attempting the first-ever reopening of a nuclear plant permanently closed for decommissioning – the Palisades reactor, near Lake Michigan in Van Buren County, which was shut down in 2022.

Restarting this reactor has always been a risky bet.  Twenty-one months into the project, Holtec has announced delay after delay while continuing to draw vast public subsidies to restart a plant that a far more experienced operator shut down.  As management fails to submit required documentation, costly nuclear fuel sits idle at Palisades, and Holtec seeks exceptions from Nuclear Regulatory Commission for work on a reactor so noncompliant that no government agency would even consider approving its construction today.

As the project stutters, it's becoming clear that Washington and Lansing lawmakers are gambling Michigan’s reputation on the dangerous restart of the wrong reactor.

Delays and exceptions

After multiple delays, stretching back to June 2024, Holtec, a New Jersey company with zero nuclear reactor operating experience, is back in line at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking forgiveness for unpermitted welding on the 55-year-old Palisades reactor pressure vessel containment head.  

This ask, likely to take many months to review, comes after a late 2025 NRC amendment to the Palisades fire safety plan to comply with current government reactor standards. It also follows a controversial NRC exemption related to resleeving approximately 1,400 cracked tubes at the plant’s ancient steam generators, as well as a unique October 2025 accident in which a worker fell into the reactor vessel and had to be fished out.

A day after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer boasted in her state of the state address that Michigan has become the “first state to ever restart a nuclear power plant at Palisades” the Nuclear Regulatory Commission released a transcript of a Feb. 12 letter to Holtec announcing yet another “change in the reactor’s estimated review schedule.”

Citing “the need to request additional information from Holtec,” the agency said it “expects to complete its review by April 8.” 

The agency cautioned that “these estimates could change due to several factors such as subsequent requests for additional information and an unanticipated addition of scope to the review.” 

To the surprise of the financial community and the nuclear industry at large, Holtec is betting the farm on an NRC “relief request” unprecedented in the 68-year history of American atomic power.

In an 84-page filing released by the NRC in late January, Holtec concedes this unauthorized welding does not comply with American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) standards.

This is a humiliating blow to the bipartisan coalition in Congress and the Michigan Legislature backing this unprecedented reactor restart, with billions in grants, subsidies and loans.

These new safety challenges at Palisades could threaten financing of the entire atomic energy industry.  Continued Holtec startup delays could also crush the Trump and Whitmer administrations’ plans to subsidize two more Holtec nuclear plants at the Palisades site with a startup $400 million grant.  Michigan previously approved two $150 million grants for the project, and the U.S. Department of Energy authorized a separate $1.5 billion loan.  Anticipating a green light, Holtec has already clearcut vast acreage to make room for these first-of-their-kind reactors.

Kevin Kamps at the advocacy group Beyond Nuclear estimates the tab for state and corporate welfare at this Covert Township reactor, as well as the Big Rock Point reactor site near Charlevoix, could top $16 billion.  This underscores why Holtec is in a hurry to launch an initial public offering aimed at netting up to $10 billion.

Windfall profits for an

inexperienced nuclear operator

A windfall of this kind would be a remarkable achievement for the rookie New Jersey-based reactor operator.  It bought Palisades in 2022 for decommissioning after it was shut down ahead of schedule by nuclear fleet operator Entergy Nuclear.  After drawing down many millions from the Palisades decommissioning trust fund the Holtec team did a series of repairs on the 55-year-old reactor.  Last summer the NRC granted Holtec an operating license.  The restart schedule has been delayed for agency review of Holtec’s welds involving the Reactor Pressure Vessel Closure Head, Control Rod Drive Mechanism and InCore Instrumentation Penetrations.

Central to this work are nozzles sealing off control rods held in long tubes atop the 150-ton reactor pressure vessel head.  The control rods are inserted to turn the reactor off and removed to start it up.  Part of the primary coolant system, these nozzles contain a radioactive boric acid solution.

After a 2002 boric acid spill ate a frightening hole in the reactor pressure vessel closure head at Ohio’s Davis-Bessie reactor, nuclear reactor owners nationwide repaired or replaced their closure heads at the urging of the NRC. 

Consumers and its successor, Entergy Nuclear, skipped these overdue upgrades.  They saved time and money by submitting to two decades of stepped up NRC reactor inspections.  That special treatment led to additional shutdowns that cost millions per day.  This expense and other safety related challenges persuaded Entergy to give up and sell the obsolete plant to Holtec for government-subsidized decommissioning.

Today, a Palisades restart requires NRC approval of unauthorized and noncompliant welds at the plant.

Too dangerous to get wrong

Critical to the NRC’s review is analyzing the possibility that Holtec’s unauthorized welds could contribute to a dangerous leak.  If that happened, highly radioactive boric acid could be dumped on the reactor pressure vessel closure head, similar to the Davis-Bessie disaster.

This would lead to an immediate safety-related shutdown causing reputational damage to the nuclear power industry.  It could also erode investor confidence in the viability of other startups seeking federal and state funding.  Among those are the Google/Meta backed restarts of reactors at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island and Iowa’s Duane Arnold Energy Center.

Alan Blind, Palisades director of engineering for six years and former vice president for nuclear at New York’s Consolidated Edison says: 

“Holtec’s new relief request makes it clear they did not follow the NRC-required ASME standards on this unapproved welding work.  No nuclear reactor company in the world would have gone ahead on this work without advance regulatory approval.  I don’t know of any company that has done nozzle welding this way.”

The questionable work focuses on nozzle welds at the bottom of the control rod tubes.  As required by NRC regulations, reactor operators submit their welding code relief requests for review and approval prior to starting this critical work.  Because it previously ran the plant on a decommissioning license, Holtec proceeded on the legal theory of “implied consent.”

Blind says Holtec’s new exemption request under an operation license 

“makes it clear the plant is completely out of compliance.  There is no easy way to fix what they have apparently done wrong on the latest welds.  If the NRC turns down Holtec’s unique proposal, restart of the plant could require replacement of the reactor pressure vessel closure head at a cost of up to $750 million.  This could slow the restart by years.

"This solution, plus the plant’s long overdue need to upgrade its obsolete steam generators, could cost $1.5 billion or more and take up to five years.  That doesn’t take into account other potential safety problems.”

Missing paperwork

Another potential challenge is that plant operators are required to submit quality assurance paperwork documenting that welds to the reactor head control rod pressure spray nozzles follow ASME code.

At a Feb. 9 NRC meeting on a related matter, Holtec conceded it does not have required quality assurance paperwork proving metal in the original construction is compatible with new Holtec welds proposed for the Palisades reactor pressurizer.  Failure to provide this kind of critically important quality documentation — central to safe operation — could cripple a restart plan.

Don’t Waste Michigan Director Michael Keegan says: 

"In this meeting, Holtec admitted it has not been able to retrieve these quality assurance documents proving it can meet required ASME code and has no idea when they will be available.  In effect Holtec is telling the NRC ‘the dog ate my homework.’”

 260302PalNeverRestart.pdf