PRESS RELEASE: for immediate use
As a courtesy to our colleagues, we provide the attached press release announcing the formation of a new national Campaign organized to counter the Trump Administration’s weakening of radiation standards.
For the past 14 months the Trump Administration has issued numerous “Executive Orders” designed to fast-track new nuclear power building and licensing. Unfortunately for the Nation, this comes at the cost of reduced protection from radioactive contamination, and potential safety and security degradation. This Campaign has galvanized to confront and reverse these irresponsible policies.
Given the facts that Illinois has both the most operating nuclear power reactors (11) and the largest quantity of “orphaned” high-level radioactive waste (>11,000 tons) of any state, the impacts of the Administration’s environmental carelessness are probabilistically more likely to be felt here than elsewhere. Coupled with the recent 2025 repeal of Illinois nuclear construction moratorium, more nuclear reactors in Illinois will only increase the potential for these hazards.
By way of disclosure, NEIS is a co-founding member of this Campaign.
Please go directly to the contacts listed for more information.
Source: Protect Better campaign https://www.protectbetter.org/
NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release
Contact: Stephen Kent, skent@kentcom.com, 914-589-5988
“PROTECT BETTER” CAMPAIGN DEMANDS BETTER RADIATION PROTECTION FOR AMERICANS AS U.S. GOVERNMENT MOVES TO LOOSEN NUCLEAR EXPOSURE REGULATION AND AS NEW REACTORS START UP
[Washington, DC – July 6] The Coalition to Stop Radioactive Pollution, comprised of health and environmental advocacy groups and nuclear watchdog groups, today announced the launch of the Protect Better campaign to demand better protection from ionizing radiation for all Americans.The campaign launch comes at a time when radiation exposure risks to workers and the public, which are already significant, are about to rise as the U.S. government overhauls regulation to enable rapid nuclear expansion. Experts connected with Protect Better point out that higher radiation exposures will damage public health and raise incidence of cancer and other diseases.
A recent Harvard study found elevated cancer mortality rates among Americans within 125 miles of existing nuclear plants. New reactors now under development use more highly enriched uranium and generate more radioactive waste than existing ones. Running old reactors longer and restarting decommissioned ones increase risk of radiological releases.
In recent weeks, startups were racing to power up new small modular reactors (SMRs) by the Trump administration’s July 4 deadline. Last week, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a proposed new rule loosening regulations on radiation exposure to workers and the public. The SMR startups and new rules are pursuant to 2025 Trump administration executive orders calling for “wholesale revision” of the NRC and urging weaker radiation standards to facilitate expansion of the nuclear power and weapons industries, including nuclear-powered data centers.
Other departmental orders, which the Trump administration wrote in secret but shared with nuclear licensees, loosen radiation protections for groundwater and the environment, raise the threshold for nuclear worker radiation exposure before an official investigation gets triggered, and make other key changes designed to accelerate deployment of new, experimental reactor designs.
Amid these developments, the Protect Better campaign is organizing to raise awareness of growing radioactive dangers, watchdog lax federal regulators and nuclear industries, and encourage citizens to take action to safeguard public health and the environment, including by submitting demands for better radiation protections during open public comment periods on new NRC rules.
“Last year a coalition of groups wrote to the NRC and other agency heads expressing our concerns about the executive orders fast-tracking nuclear projects and rolling back regulation, citing research that documents harms from radiation exposure,” said Dr. Brian Campbell, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility. “The new proposed NRC rule ignores those concerns. Among other things, it throws out the established scientific basis for setting radiation dose limits and allows nuclear owners to apply to raise limits for exposures they cause. We are still evaluating the proposed NRC rule and will be submitting detailed comments on it, but we will fight these rollbacks and demand protective standards based on the best science. The Coalition to Stop Radioactive Pollution is urging public interest groups and concerned citizens to do likewise.”
“An expanding nuclear industry coupled with deteriorating regulation is a recipe for more radioactive pollution in the environment and worse health impacts,” said Dr. Amanda Nichols, Nuclear Radiation Policy Expert at Generational Radiation Impact Project. “After years of research, the NRC finally acknowledged in 2021 that even a single radioactive particle may cause cancer. But the impacts go well beyond cancer: immune dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, pregnancy impacts, and other health effects have all been linked to radiation exposure, and they affect some populations more than others. We know that girls and women are disproportionately harmed from exposure, and that compounding exposures exacerbate the risks of harm. Research shows that internal exposures, which come from ingesting contaminated food, water, or air, are orders of magnitude more harmful than we were previously told. Now, with more radiation in the environment, the impacts to the general public, and especially to girls and women, could be catastrophic.”
“The nuclear power and weapons industry has steadily poisoned us for over 80 years with radioactivity that lasts eons,” said Mary Beth Brangan, director of the Ecological Options Network (EON). “As more nuclear facilities are built across the United States under weakened oversight, it will allow radioactive contamination to rise across the country. Instead of arbitrarily raising dose limits to boost the nuclear industry, the Protect Better campaign demands stricter, science-based, protective standards to better protect the public and the environment.”
Groups supporting the Protect Better campaign include Physicians for Social Responsibility, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Parents Against Santa Susana Field Laboratory, Nuclear Energy Information Service, Beyond Nuclear, the Samuel Lawrence Foundation, the Ecological Options Network, Committee to Bridge the Gap, Generational Radiation Impact Project, and the Oregon Conservancy Foundation.
NOTE TO EDITORS AND PRODUCERS: Sources quoted in this release and other experts and advocates connected with the Protect Better campaign are available for comment and interviews. For more information, please contact Stephen Kent, skent@kentcom.com, 914-589-5988
