PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Use:  Thursday, May 28, 2025

Contact:  David Kraft,  (773)342-7650 (o); (630)506-2864 (c);  neis@neis.org

Trump Administration Gutting Regulatory Agency, Recent Nuclear Incidents, Coverup: No Time to Open Illinois for More Nuclear Power, Nuclear Watchdog Group Asserts

CHICAGO—At a time when the Illinois Legislature and Governor Pritzker are contemplating the repeal of the Illinois nuclear power moratorium, recent real-world events argue strongly against that move, a local safe-energy advocacy organization argues.

On Friday, May 23, President Trump signed Executive Orders (E/Os) which effectively gut the regulatory power of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to fulfill its mandate to protect the public health, safety and environment.

On the same day it was learned that the aged Quad Cities nuclear reactor station in Illinois had experienced a manual emergency shutdown on May 19, and fire on May 22; and further, that a serious nuclear incident that occurred in March 2023 had been covered up by both the utility and the NRC.

Many experts – including two former Chairs of the NRC — have savaged Trump’s ill-advised weakening of nuclear power regulation. (see attached statement list below).  NEIS points out that the Administration’s desire to expand nuclear while slashing regulation of both aging reactors and experimental, unproven new reactors is a recipe for disaster.  The Boeing plane disasters, the East Palestine train derailment, even the Fukushima reactor disaster – all had their root cause in either de-regulation, self-regulation by industry, or government-industry collusion.

“These events show beyond a doubt that while current regulation is clearly suspect, gutting it further at a time when some Illinois legislators and officials want to expand nuclear power is an outright threat to Illinois,” maintains David Kraft, director of the 43-year old Chicago-based safe-energy advocacy/anti-nuclear organization Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS). “Now is simply NOT the time to repeal the nuclear moratorium,” he asserts.

Legislation SB1527 and HB3604 call for the repeal of the 1987 nuclear construction moratorium, which simply states that no new reactors will be built in Illinois until the Federal Government demonstrates that it has an operational facility to dispose of – not merely store – high-level radioactive waste (HLRW).  The U.S. has failed to build such a facility; and all HLRW remains in storage at reactor sites.  Illinois – with 11 operating and 3 shuttered/decommissioned reactors – currently stores 11,000+ tons of HLRW, more than any other state.

Illinois is powerless to enact protective legislation to compensate for the regulatory safety void created by the Trump E/Os.  The NRC retains preemptive authority on all matters pertaining to safety and security at nuclear power plants.  No state can enact regulations stricter than those created and administered by the NRC, no matter how well-intentioned or protective.  Therefore, neither Governor Pritzker nor the Legislature can enact anything that will provide additional safeguards.

The Quad Cities reactors are owned by Constellation Energy are older and the same design as those which melted down and exploded during the Fukushima disaster.  A manual “scram” – an emergency shutdown – occurred on May 19, followed by a fire on May 22.  But just before these incidents, it was revealed that according to the NRC a serious accident that involved contaminating workers with radioactive water had occurred in March 2023, but was initially covered up by the plant staff.  Three years after the fact, the NRC has still not brought any corrective action or fines to bear.

As if to punctuate this sorry operational and regulatory performance, on Tuesday May 27 the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) released a report titled, ‘The Terrible 13: The Worst Safety and Security Violators in the US Nuclear Power Fleet.” The Quad Cities reactors are listed in this Report.

“Governor Pritzker is reported to have said that he wants to, ‘expand the options for nuclear in the state of Illinois….But it has to be done in the right way.’” Kraft notes.

“Under these conditions, there is no ‘right way.’  The questionable level of current regulation, and now the further erosion of even that via the E/Os are not the conditions calling for more nuclear power,” Kraft states.

“Current reactors are showing signs of aging. New reactors would require greater oversight during start-up phase.  With reduced regulatory oversight, neither will be safe.  Now is clearly not the time to bring more nuclear power to Illinois,” Kraft maintains.

“One bad day at the nuclear office will reduce Illinois to becoming the Belarus of North America,” he concludes, referring to the country most heavily impacted by the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

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Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS) was formed in 1981 to watchdog the nuclear power industry, and to promote a renewable, non-nuclear energy future.

 

Numerous competent nuclear experts have decried the Trump Administration’s irresponsible nuclear deregulation action:

Statements by Dr. Ed Lyman, Union of Concerned Scientists:

“This push by the Trump administration to usurp much of the agency’s autonomy as they seek to fast-track the construction of nuclear plants will weaken critical, independent oversight of the U.S. nuclear industry and poses significant safety and security risks to the public,” UCS added.

Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the UCS, said, “Simply put, the U.S. nuclear industry will fail if safety is not made a priority.”

“By fatally compromising the independence and integrity of the NRC, and by encouraging pathways for nuclear deployment that bypass the regulator entirely, the Trump administration is virtually guaranteeing that this country will see a serious accident or other radiological release that will affect the health, safety, and livelihoods of millions,” Lyman added. “Such a disaster will destroy public trust in nuclear power and cause other nations to reject U.S. nuclear technology for decades to come.”

Statements by Dr. Alison Macfarlane, former Chairwoman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission:

“An independent regulator is one who is free from industry and political influence…Once you insert the White House into the process, you don’t have an independent regulator anymore.”

“If you aren’t independent of political and industry influence, then you are at risk of an accident,” Macfarlane warned.

Statement by Dr. Gregory Jaczko, former Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission:

Gregory Jaczko, who led the NRC under President Obama, said Trump’s executive orders look like someone asked an AI chatbot, “How do we make the nuclear industry worse in this country?”

He called the orders a “guillotine to the nation’s nuclear safety system” that will make the country less safe, the industry less reliable and the climate crisis more severe.

Statement by Joseph Romm, a senior research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media:

…any reduction in capacity at the NRC would be ill-timed with the administration’s proposed ramp-up of nuclear projects.

“This is not the time to be weakening oversight,” said Romm, who was a senior official at the Department of Energy in the 1990s. “It’s very dangerous to be weakening and undermining and politicizing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s oversight at a time when it’s not going to be having to do less work.”

Speeding up the permitting process while accepting proposals for new reactor designs would be “ridiculous and very dangerous,” he added.

Statement by Johanna Neumann, Environment America Research & Policy Center’s senior director of the Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy:

“Do we really want to create more radioactive waste to power the often dubious and questionable uses of AI?”