Trump has slashed safety requirements for nuclear reactors - secretly - as a favor for AI bros building data centers

[highplainsdem]

Thers's a thread about the secret regulations in LBN

The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143606910

where the excerpt didn't mention which Trump donors and bribers would benefit from this very dangerous weakening of regulations.

But I knew it was most likely the AI bros, because they'd been talking for a while about wanting small nuclear power plants - but of course not saying anything about wanting changes to safety requirements that will put all of us at risk.

From the NPR article about this outrageous change to regulations:

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/28/nx-s1-5677187/nuclear-safety-rules-rewritten-trump

The new generation of nuclear reactor designs, known as small modular reactors, are being backed by billions in private equity, venture capital and public investments. Backers of the reactors, including tech giants Amazon, Google and Meta, have said they want the reactors to one day supply cheap, reliable power for artificial intelligence. (Amazon and Google are financial supporters of NPR.)

-snip-

"They're taking a wrecking ball to the system of nuclear safety and security regulation oversight that has kept the U.S. from having another Three Mile Island accident," said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "I am absolutely worried about the safety of these reactors."

-snip-

The new orders strip out some guiding principles of nuclear safety, notably a concept known as "As Low As Reasonably Achievable" (ALARA), which requires nuclear reactor operators to keep levels of radiation exposure below the legal limit whenever they can. The ALARA standard has been in use for decades at both the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

-snip-

The new standard says only that radioactive discharges into sanitary sewers "should be avoided." Similar language changes were made to soften restrictions on groundwater discharges, and protections for the environment.

-snip-

The new rules - which have not been made public, but NPR obtained copies of - "cut back on requirements for keeping records."

How very Trumpian.

And all too typical of the companies peddling generative AI.