The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules

[Marlin]

A little long and it's NPR so....

The Trump administration has secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules

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

[Mounder]

This is basically what I've been expecting. DOE would whitewash any mention of ALARA just like they did a decade ago with ISMS (safety). It was viewed as too expensive have contractors to live by with the ISMS safety metrics that are mostly built around safety culture.  It does cost money, but it does end up keeping the contractors and workforce engaged in safety practices. That's a win.
Now with ALARA, they'll whitewash that term and still perform all the metrics, just like they do today with ISMS. They stripped every other Order mention but left DOE Acquisition Regulation (DEAR) clause 48 C.F.R. 970.5223-1 which outlines the requirements for integrating safety into work planning and execution, ensuring that contractors implement ISM systems consistent with the hazards and complexity of their facilities. So, DOE management, who secretly love it, stay fully engaged all the way to the top...
The term ALARA or anything alluding to conservative radiological values will be flushed, but the nuts & bolts MARSSIM reguation and RESRAD output will still be the doctrine of choice for legal. Are they built around ALARA? YES Will it get changed? NO.
That said, I bet ALARA reviews do get flushed for DOE radworkers.  If you don't care about their exposure anymore and you cancelled all payouts for DOE cold-war workers getting rad-related cancers from radiation, why bother with ALARA reviews on projects. They see it as DOE workers with high dose are not first responders, so zero benefit....
 

[radcoon]

Sounds like the DOE passed draft copies out to the contractors to find our how much it was going to cost to change things.   I found 2 parts especially interesting:

"But perhaps nowhere are the cuts more obvious than in the new order on safeguards and security. Seven security directives totaling over 500 pages have been consolidated into a single, 23-page order."

I find that thinking that more pages mean better regulations to be laughable...  However...  Not sure I really trust government contractors to take care of the public without rules either.

Second:
"The orders also clearly laid out the steps needed to ensure companies abided by other relevant laws, Campbell [Tison Campbell, a partner at K&L Gates who previously worked as a lawyer at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission] said. He worries that the rewrites that loosen rules on things like radiological discharges could actually lead companies to violate other environmental and safety laws. For example, radiological releases into public sewers might violate legal limits under the Clean Water Act. Companies may not read those underlying laws, "so I think you're setting them up to violate statutes or regulations that are going to remain in place," he said."

I thought ignorance was not a valid legal defense? This whole article hints at NPR trying to make it a hit piece. But it is also pointing out that the DOE may be reducing conservatism and defense in depth. Either way I applaud the call for the government to be accountable. Far too often have large government projects gone over budget and left a mess for local people to live with.

Anyway, based on all the evidence we have, it sounds like the DOE is taking some small risks. I hope the small risks don't all add up to something too big to manage.

[Mounder]

I wasn't aware of the security directives being slashed so heavily.  Twenty-three pages seems amazingly thin. You could take a dozen top-level DOE Security managers regarding security subparts like clearances, site boundary/protected areas security, transport security, and get seven different interpretations on what the regulations say (23 pages won't make it better.)

[Marlin]

If you look at the changes ALARA is in the deletions.