PRESS STATEMENT
So – you think Illinois 11 nuclear reactors are safely regulated?
Better think again.
May 29, 2026
CHICAGO: The headlong plunge by Governor Pritzker and the Legislature into new nuclear power plants for Illinois have always been prefaced by the term “safe”. This has occurred despite the numerous warnings about the Trump Administration’s dismantling the federal Nuclear Regulatory Agency’s (NRC – the Agency charged with ensuring “adequate” safety and protection of the public and the environment from radiologic threats) ability to effectively regulate the nuclear industry.
Two disturbing reports emerging in the past several days strongly argue that assuming even this questionable standard for radiation protection may no longer be warranted.
In a lengthy and in-depth article — The Trump administration’s reckless attack on radiation protection will have long-term consequences for public safety — published on May 27 in the highly respected Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, legendary physicist Dr. Frank von Hipple argues that Trump Administration actions to weaken radiation standards is “reckless,” and concludes that “the Trump administration has now, in effect, set the value of American lives to zero in regulatory protections against nuclear-radiation-caused cancer.”
This dire analysis is followed today by an equally sobering article from Linda Pentz Gunter, director of Beyond Nuclear, a national safe-energy advocacy/anti-nuclear organization. In this article, Breaking Nuclear Law. The Risks Are Immeasurable, Pentz compiles a well-documented case that recent Trump Administration efforts to “fast-track” nuclear reactor licensing, weaken radiation standards, and even provide plutonium to private corporations (what could possibly go wrong?) are all – surprise, surprise! – breaking the law. She concludes, “Nuclear power is simply too inherently dangerous a technology to operate outside the law. Ignoring those dangers will put millions of Americans at risk of another catastrophic nuclear accident.”
As the highly speculative rush to nuclear driven by the equally speculative data center phenomenon continues largely without proper deep analysis, Illinois’ officials should recognize that their initial naïve assumption of “safe nuclear” has been shattered. They would be wise to consider a new nuclear moratorium – on BOTH unbridled development of data centers AND proposed large-scale and so-called “small modular” and “micro” reactors in Illinois proposed to power them — at least until the Klown Kar Trump Administration passes nuclear regulation back to the adults.
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Breaking Nuclear Law. The Risks Are Immeasurable
By Linda Pentz Gunter
