Trump takes steps toward a nuclear future
By
Duggan Flanakin
|
June 1st, 2025
President Donald Trump, surrounded by Cabinet officials and representatives of the U.S. nuclear industry, signed five executive orders on May 23 that he believes will usher in a nuclear energy renaissance in the United States and restore “gold standard science” in federal decision making.
Regulatory overkill has been identified as the chief reason (along with media-driven fear) that the U.S. has surrendered its once-wide lead in nuclear energy technology. Since the Nuclear Regulatory Commission replaced the Atomic Energy Commission in 1975, it has snubbed its nose at President Eisenhower’s vision for the peaceful uses of atomic energy.
The NRC reforms terrify former NRC chair (under President Obama) Allison Macfarlane. In a lengthy rant, Macfarlane spoke of the horrors of the 2011 Fukushima tsunami-related incident, citing the temporary evacuations and (short-term) disruptions while ignoring the fact nobody died from radiation sickness or that Japan is reopening its nuclear power plants.
Under Macfarlane and others who headed up the NRC, the Idaho National Laboratory stopped constructing and testing new reactor designs. Prior to 1978, the U.S. had authorized construction of 133 civilian nuclear reactors at 81 powerplant sites. Since that date, only two NRC-authorized reactors have entered commercial operation.
https://www.cfact.org/2025/06/01/trump-takes-steps-toward-a-nuclear-future/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=trump-takes-steps-toward-a-nuclear-future&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=trump-takes-steps-toward-a-nuclear-future
