Nuclear regulator prepares to abandon decades-old radiation safety rule
The NRC is preparing to change a foundational rule designed to minimize radiation exposure.
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NRC → prepare → exposure
The update is part of President Trump's expansive changes to nuclear oversight, as his administration seeks to revive nuclear energy to power data centers for artificial intelligence.
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administration → seek → intelligence
Under a new proposed rule, the agency is eliminating a fifty-year-old standard known as "As Low As Reasonably Achievable" (ALARA), which requires the nuclear industry to drive radiation exposure for workers and the public below the stated limits where possible.
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which → propose → limits
The new rule also creates a carveout for some workers to get higher exposures to radiation in special circumstances.
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workers → create → circumstances
"Keeping doses as low as reasonably achievable was a fair idea," said Emily Caffrey, a radiation health physicist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
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Caffrey → keep → Birmingham
But in practice the standard forced companies to take increasingly stringent radiation protection measures.
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standard → force → measures
It also created ambiguity, Caffrey said, "because what's 'reasonable' to one person isn't reasonable to another person.
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's → create → person
But others warn that the change could lay the groundwork for higher radiation exposures.
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change → warn → exposures
"Removing it would remove that incentive for these companies to continue to maintain the practices that protected their workers and the public," said Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog group.
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Lyman → remove → Scientists
The public comment period for the new rule ends August 31.
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period → end → rule
It could go into effect early next year.
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It → go → effect
Since shortly after the dawn of the nuclear age, scientists have been aware of the risks of radiation exposure, and decades of data makes it clear.
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it → make → data
"At high radiation doses, nobody's really arguing radiation causes cancer," said David Brenner, director the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University.
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Brenner → argue → University
High doses of radiation damage DNA and can cause mutations that lead to cancer.
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that → damage → cancer
But when the dose is low, it's much harder to determine risk because around 40% of the U.S. population develops cancer at some point in their lifetime.
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% → determine → lifetime
"As you go down in dose, what you're looking for is a very small increase in cancer risk over a very large background," Brenner said.
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Brenner → go → background
"That's what makes it really really hard."
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it → make → ?
For the past fifty years or so, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has dealt with this uncertainty by requiring that radiation exposure be kept as low as possible by asking that the nuclear industry adhere to ALARA.
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industry → deal → ALARA
Then last May, President Trump signed an executive order calling for a wholesale overhaul of nuclear regulations.
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Trump → sign → regulations
The order specifically called out ALARA, claiming the principle was a "flawed" understanding of radiation risks.
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principle → call → risks
The NRC decided not to change its scientific model of radiation risk, known as the Linear No Threshold model, but it has proposed eliminating ALARA.
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it → decide → ALARA
Speaking this week on the Federal News Network, NRC Chairman Ho Nieh said that ALARA is no longer working.
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ALARA → speak → Network
To explain why he drew a comparison to speed limits.
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he → explain → limits
A road's speed limit might be 55 miles per hour, but "imagine if there's another rule that says you have to drive as slow as reasonably achievable to be safer.
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you → imagine → hour
Well what does that mean?
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that → mean → what
That uncertainty would make it hard for drivers, and similarly ALARA is making it hard for reactor designers, Nieh argued.
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Nieh → make → designers
He said getting rid of it is part of a sweeping overhaul of many NRC rules as required by President Trump's executive order.
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He → say → order
"The reason we're taking these regulatory reforms is because there's a demand for, an urgent demand for more electricity in the United States, due to artificial intelligence, data centers and industrial growth.
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we → take → intelligence
"
Removing ALARA will especially help the design of new smaller reactors that could power some of these applications, Nieh said.
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Nieh → remove → applications
"Loosey-goosey" rules
The NRC will instead use the existing current threshold of five rem for a worker and 0.1 rem for the public as the upper limit for radiation exposure.
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NRC → use → exposure
A whole body CT scan is about one rem, according to the EPA.
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scan → accord → EPA
Caffrey said she's comfortable with eliminating the squishy ALARA principle and asking the industry to stick to the numbers already in the regulations: "You should have a number because 'reasonable' is too loosey-goosey."
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reasonable → say → number
The proposed NRC rule doesn't change its other regulatory limits, but it does create some carve-outs.
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it → propose → outs
In particular, the industry would now be able to ask for a "planned occupational dose limit extension," which would allow workers to receive 10 rem instead of five in any given year, providing their overall exposure doesn't pass 25 rem in a five-year period.
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exposure → ask → period
In its public meeting on the proposed change earlier this month, the NRC said it envisioned the dose limit extension would be used sparingly for things like reactor refueling and upgrades at nuclear power plants.
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extension → propose → plants
Caffrey says that a 10 rem exposure in a given year is getting close to the level that experts know can elevate cancer risk.
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experts → say → risk
"I personally, knowing everything I know, would not want to get 10 rem every year for my working life," she said.
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she → know → life
But Lyman, with the Union of Concerned Scientists, thinks that ALARA should stay.
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ALARA → think → Scientists
He said while it may be imperfect, its net effect has been to reduce radiation exposure to very low levels.
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effect → say → levels
The harms of low dose radiation exposure are difficult to see, but Lyman says NRC's own models suggest those harms exist.
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harms → see → exposure
…and 2 more, not listed.
