⚖️ Trump loosens rules on nuclear

The July 4th Nuclear Sprint: Fast-Tracking the Atom

If you’ve been tracking the sudden $1.5 billion surge in nuclear startup funding, the roadmap just got much shorter and significantly more controversial. The Trump administration has spent the winter months quietly overhauling the Department of Energy (DOE) safety manual to meet a high-stakes deadline: achieving nuclear criticality for at least three new reactors by July 4, 2026. This "Reactor Pilot Program," established by Executive Order 14301, is designed to bypass the traditional, decade-long Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing process by building experimental reactors on federal land. For companies like Oklo, Aalo Atomics, and Antares Nuclear, this represents a regulatory "fast-lane" that hasn't existed since the early days of the Cold War.

Gutting the Rulebook: From "Must" to "Maybe"

The recent NPR investigation reveals that the DOE has effectively taken a "red pen" to its internal safety directives, slashing approximately 750 pages of regulations—roughly one-third of the total rulebook. The revisions shift the legal burden from mandatory compliance to what critics call "concierge regulation," where safety protocols that were once strict requirements are now framed as suggestions or "considerations." One of the most significant changes is the removal of the ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) principle, which, for decades, mandated that radiation exposure be kept as low as possible, regardless of legal limits. Now, workers may be exposed to higher doses before triggering an official investigation, and the accident-reporting threshold has been doubled from two times the legal limit to four times.

The AI Hunger and the Transparency Gap

While the Department of Energy claims these changes simply remove "administrative burdens" to foster innovation, the lack of public comment has raised alarms among safety experts such as Dr. Edwin Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists. The administration argues that the NRC's transparency is a bottleneck that America can no longer afford, particularly as AI data centers demand massive amounts of 24/7 carbon-free power. This policy creates a "two-tier" system of nuclear safety: reactors built on private land still face the full weight of NRC scrutiny, while those built on DOE property—often closer to the very data centers they aim to power—operate under this new, leaner framework. With startups like Atomic Alchemy and Radiant Industries already breaking ground, the race to hit the Independence Day deadline is officially a gamble on whether speed and safety can coexist.

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