On May 23, 2025, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14300 aimed at reforming the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which has been criticized for hindering nuclear power development through stringent regulations. The order directed the NRC to reconsider its reliance on the linear no-threshold (LNT) model for radiation exposure and the "as low as reasonably achievable" (ALARA) standard, both of which assume that any radiation exposure increases cancer risk and thus require minimizing exposure to the lowest possible levels.

The NRC’s existing safety models, based on LNT, lack strong scientific support and lead to requirements such as protecting against radiation below naturally occurring levels. Critics argue this approach ignores risks associated with alternative energy sources and enforces unnecessarily strict regulations.

Despite the executive order’s mandate to "adopt science-based radiation limits" and "specifically consider adopting determinate radiation limits," the NRC’s July 1, 2026, proposed radiation safety rules largely ignored these directives. The agency acknowledged limitations in the LNT model at very low doses but stated it has not identified a suitable alternative.

The NRC concluded that decades of research have not demonstrated statistically significant adverse health effects at doses below 10,000 millirems delivered at low dose rates. This aligns with the Health Physics Society’s position that radiation effects below about 100 mSv (10,000 millirems) above background levels are not statistically different from zero. For context, a chest X-ray exposes a person to about 2 millirems, and an abdomen and pelvis CT scan about 770 millirems.

Researchers from Idaho have recommended replacing the current approach with annual determinate exposure limits of 5,000 millirems for occupational workers and 500 millirems for the public, but the NRC has yet to adopt such changes.

Sources

Reason: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Ignores Trump's Order To Revise Radiation Exposure Limits