PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Use: Monday, October 27, 2025
Contact: David Kraft, (773)342-7650 (o); (630)506-2864 (c); neis@neis.org
“Governor Pritzker, Legislators: Preserve Illinois’ Nuclear Moratorium,”
Nuclear Watchdog Group Advises
CHICAGO—As the Fall Veto Session of the Illinois Legislature begins on Tuesday this week, an Illinois environmental, safe-energy advocacy organization advises: preserve the Illinois nuclear construction moratorium. Read more
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?”
NEIS Statement on the Legislature’s Partial Repeal of Illinois’ Nuclear Construction Moratorium, and Embrace of Small Modular Reactors
Nov. 10, 2023
“Who is so deafe, or so blynde, as is hee, that wilfully will nother heare nor see.” — writer John Haywood, 1546 Read more
The law provides homebuyers some assurance that sellers aren’t hiding defects or problems with the property. Prescriptions are accompanied with a pamphlet listing all the warnings and medical contraindications for the meds. Read more
The recent Illinois lobbying corruption scandal involving Exelon Corporation, its subsidiary Commonwealth Edison and Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan demonstrate the extent to which nuclear “power” is about more than electrons. While the FBI arrests of the Ohio House Speaker and 5 others in a $60 million bribery/corruption scheme, the $10 billion Exelon nuclear bailout in New York, the questionable circumstances surrounding Exelon’s 2016 PepCo merger, and the South Carolina $9 billion SCANA fraud case suggest that this may be a national pandemic (summarized nicely in this New York Times piece , “When Utility Money Talks,” 8/2/20), the situation in Illinois with Exelon and its subsidiary ComEd has been long standing and particularly egregious.
For decades Exelon’s stranglehold on Illinois energy legislation in cooperation with the currently investigated Speaker Michael Madigan has not only given Illinois more reactors (14) and high-level radioactive waste (>11,000 tons) than any other state. It has severely stifled expansion of renewable energy and energy efficiency, and hampered the Illinois’ energy transformation needed to deal with the worsening climate crisis.
For decades the Illinois environmental community has seen renewables expansion thwarted by the recognition that no significant renewable energy buildout could occur without concessions to either Exelon or ComEd, and Speaker Madigan’s approval. The most recent instance was the 2016 $2.35 billion bailout of three uncompetitive Exelon reactors.
This “nuclear blackmail” politics has forced enviros wanting to pass new legislation to expand renewables into a reluctant and grudging alliance with Exelon – at Exelon’s price of capacity market “reform” that would reward both renewables and ten of Exelon’s operating reactors. If passed in its presently proposed form, this provides yet another nuclear bailout under the disguise of “market-based reform.”
To ratchet up the pressure to enact this nuclear prop-up even more, Exelon CEO Chris Crane in Exelon’s 2Q quarterly earnings call with analysts once again dangles the prospect of closing up to 6 reactors if this market-based-bailout is not granted in 2021.
Under the current ongoing FBI corruption investigation, this reluctant alliance of necessity has turned disastrous, given the political toxicity of any current association with either ComEd or Exelon.
It is just and reasonable that ComEd (and the so-called “bad apples” who “retired” already) should be penalized and prosecuted for their misdeeds, even if they are reportedly “cooperative.” However, a $200 million “settlement” penalty for a $34 billion corporation that for decades has gouged billions from Illinois ratepayers through admittedly corrupt illegal practices is a slap on the wrist.
Further, the $200 million penalty agreement provides no restitution for the decades-long societal damage done via nuclear pay-for-play. Illinois rate payers deserve restitution from these and any predatory, corrupt companies that would engage in such activities. This may require explicit legislation. How can one logically or ethically assert that ill-gotten gains (e.g., the 2016 $2.35 billion nuclear bailout) are still “good for the public” when bribery and corruption were used to get them?
Last Fall, a spokesperson for Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker stated, “The governor’s priority is to work with principled stakeholders on clean energy legislation that is above reproach.” Gov. Pritzker – your moment of truth has arrived.
We urge the Governor and the legislature to begin the restitution process by repealing the $2.3 billion 2016 nuclear bailout. Further, and as others like Crain’s Joe Cahill have suggested, Christopher Crane must step down completely from all functions at Exelon.
The legislature should also enact explicit utility ethics legislation with transparent oversight of utility contracting and philanthropic giving activities to insure that this kind of corrupt behavior is not repeated. And if Chris Crane’s threat of imminent reactor closure is true, then community just-transitions legislation to protect those negatively impacted communities should be a priority of the legislature. As NEIS has maintained and advocated since 2014 – it’s the reactor communities (and equally adversely affected coal mining and power plant communities) that need state support and bailouts when plants are threatened with closure, not profitable private corporations like Exelon.
Finally, we support the FBI’s continued investigation into the activities of Speaker Madigan, associates, and other legislators if necessary to ferret out the remaining political corruption that has abetted this corporate larceny. This is the only way to send a significant and lasting message that nuclear pay-for-play in Illinois is over.
[NOTE: If you are interested in using the above cartoon, please contact NEIS for conditions of use. Thanks in advance.]
