Some Of The US’ Newest Nuclear Reactors Don’t Even Need Environmental Reviews

Nuclear chain reactions are contained inside of nuclear reactors within nuclear power plants, allowing fission to create an incredible amount of heat in a safe and controlled environment. However, nuclear reactors come with some rare but big risks — accidents could harm humans with radiation and contaminate the environment. That’s why the Department of Energy had strict safety, environmental protection, and security regulations — until recently. 

In January 2026, NPR revealed that the Department of Energy under the Trump Administration had secretly cut around 750 pages of safety and security regulations in an attempt to increase innovation and speed up development. A month later, the Federal Register confirmed that new advanced modular reactors are being excluded from an environmental law requiring more disclosure on environmental protection and consequences of an accident. This coincides with President Donald Trump’s executive order stating that 10 large reactors should be under construction by 2030 — possibly to power the country’s data centers, with companies like Amazon, Google, and Meta backing these new plants.

While the U.S. Department of Energy’s changes could increase how many nuclear reactors there are in the country, a lot of experts are worried about the changes to safety rules. This includes Edwin Lyman, the Director of Nuclear Power Safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. He accused the new rules of “cutting corners” on public health and environmental protections. He told NPR, “The fact is that any nuclear reactor, no matter how small, no matter how safe it looks on paper, is potentially subject to severe accidents”. 

You’ve likely heard of nuclear reactor accidents at Chernobyl and Fukushima, but the United States also had an extremely notorious incident in 1979, referred to as Three Mile Island. The reactor partially melted down near Middletown, Pennsylvania, but radiation was contained, and there was no effect on the environment or people in the area, thanks to the safety measures it had in place. Critics like Lyman say that removing the need for new nuclear reactors to provide the same safety and security precautions as part of their operations could be a huge risk.