The Trump administration has decided to roll back environmental regulations on new nuclear power plant designs.
Considering that some of these plants use an explosive material (molten sodium) as a coolant, this decision concerns me.
The Department of Energy says advanced nuclear reactor designs - many of which have so far existed mainly at the experimental, testing, or demonstration stage - generally pose limited environmental risk and can qualify for a streamlined environmental review for future projects.
The DoE announced the "categorical exclusion" for advanced nuclear reactors (ANRs) in a Federal Register filing on Monday, establishing a pathway that can allow ANR projects to proceed without a full environmental assessment or environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), provided specific conditions are met. The move follows Trump's executive orders directing agencies to streamline environmental reviews for nuclear reactors in order to accelerate their deployment.
A categorical exclusion means that a covered category of actions "normally does not significantly affect the quality of the human environment and therefore does not require preparation of an environmental assessment or environmental impact statement," the filing says. In this case, that's referring to ANRs, which include Generation III+ reactors, small modular reactors, microreactors, and stationary and mobile reactors.
Authorization, siting, construction, operation, reauthorization, and decommissioning of ANRs are all included in the categorical exclusion.
BTW, did I mention that the sodium cooled reactor is founded by Bill "Blue Screen of Death" Gates?
Absolute nightmare fuel this is.
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