Secretly rewritten nuclear safety rules are made public

The Department of Energy has made public a set of new rules that slash environmental and security requirements for experimental nuclear reactors.

Last month, NPR reported on the existence of the rules, which were quietly rewritten to accelerate development of a new generation of nuclear reactor designs.

The rule changes came about after President Trump signed an executive order calling for three or more of the experimental reactors to come online by July 4 of this year — an incredibly tight deadline in the world of nuclear power. The order led to the creation of a new Reactor Pilot Program at the Department of Energy.

Commercial nuclear reactors have historically been regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is known for its public process. The Energy Department rules had applied to a small number of experimental reactors on government property. The pilot program extends that authority to a larger set of experimental commercial designs. It also expands where those reactors can be built: several are under construction outside of the department's national laboratories.

To help facilitate Trump's deadline, Energy Department officials rewrote the internal rules. It shared the rules with ten companies who were part of the pilot program, but the rewritten rules, and even their existence, was not known to the public until NPR obtained copies of them.

The rules are now public on a website at Idaho National Laboratory, which is running the Reactor Pilot Program for the department. The website also contains standards and policy documents that were revised for the program.

The laboratory notified NPR of their publication in response to a Freedom of Information Act request calling for their release.

"DOE has recently completed the process of making these Nuclear Energy Orders and Standards publicly available to ensure broad public access," the Department of Energy wrote to NPR in a letter on Thursday.

"This is long overdue," said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists. "The public has the right to understand what the directives are that DOE is using to authorize these experimental reactors."

The rules, known as orders, define requirements for almost every aspect of the reactors' operations — including safety systems, environmental protections and site security.

NPR's review of the rules found substantial changes that experts warned had the potential to undermine safety, security and environmental protections at the new reactors. The orders slashed hundreds of pages of requirements for training guards and securing nuclear material. They also loosened protections for things like groundwater.

In total, the new orders cut 750 pages from the earlier versions of the rules, according to NPR's analysis. That means roughly two-thirds of the original pages were eliminated.

In a statement responding to NPR's story in January, the Department of Energy defended the changes. "The reduction of unnecessary regulations will increase innovation in the industry without jeopardizing safety," it said.

In the month since NPR's original story, companies involved with the reactor program have rushed ahead with construction of their experimental designs. Two companies, Antares Nuclear and Radiant Industries, have announced they had completed a crucial step known as a Preliminary Documented Safety Analysis with the Energy Department regulators. Both companies say they are on track to start up their reactors this summer. A third called Aalo says it has completed its Final Design Review and hopes to finalize construction this summer.

Meanwhile, California-based Valar Atomics flew their reactor prototype on a military C-17 transport to Utah earlier this month. The Pentagon is looking to deploy small reactors to military bases as part of a separate program known as project Janus.

Lyman says he continues to be concerned that the new rules and tight deadlines threaten safety.

"My concern is that, in the rush to fulfill President Trump's order, they are slashing the procedures that would normally be used to ensure the safety and security case for these reactors," he said.

But administration officials like Secretary of Energy Chris Wright remain bullish that the program can safely spark nuclear innovation.

"Before July fourth of this year, we will have multiple nuclear reactors critical," Wright said at a press conference on February 15 at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. "That's speed. That's innovation. That's the start of a nuclear renaissance."