Ted Nordhaus and Adam Stein write in The Hill about nuclear power regulations.
- After Congress directed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to modernize nuclear energy regulations, the NRC has released its new rules which are more complex and burdensome than before.
- The new rules incorporate unrealistic radiation standards that provide zero safety benefits and nearly impossible to abide by.
- The new NRC regulations will make it harder and more expensive to bring new and existing nuclear power technologies online, which will threaten our energy security and ability to reduce emissions.
“Instead of moving forward with an ill-conceived rule to meet an arbitrary deadline, Congress and the NRC commissioners should instead insist that the NRC staff go back to the drawing board. There is no reason that a vastly simplified framework for licensing advanced reactors, one that establishes clear, high-level safety and performance objectives and allows reactor developers to figure out how to meet them, can’t be in place by 2027. Developing the innovative advanced nuclear sector that the U.S. and the world need depends upon the NRC promulgating a new regulatory framework appropriate to today’s nuclear technologies. Congress and the commission should insist that the NRC staff do so.”
Read the full article here.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.
