Authored by Evgenia Filimianova via The Epoch Times,
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on July 8 proposed narrowing environmental reviews for new and renewed nuclear reactor licenses, a move the agency said would reduce costs, as the Trump administration pushes to expand nuclear energy.
In this aerial view, the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant stands in the middle of the Susquehanna River near Middletown, Pa., on Oct. 10, 2024. Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesThe proposal would change how the NRC implements the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), limiting reviews to environmental effects that fall within the agency's legal authority.
The NRC described the proposal as the "most comprehensive update to its environmental review regulations in decades," adding that it would remove outdated requirements and make the licensing process more efficient.
NRC Chairman Ho Nieh said the proposal, which is open for public comment until Aug. 21, would better align the agency's environmental reviews with what Congress intended under NEPA.
He told reporters: "For many, many, many years, NRC did much more than required by law in the National Environmental Policy Act. So this really brings us back to what NEPA demands, nothing more, nothing less."
Nieh also said, "By concentrating on impacts the NRC can address, we'll strengthen environmental protection while making licensing reviews more timely and predictable."
He said that the NRC proposes to limit areas where it does not have authority over effects on the environment, such as the construction of nuclear plants.
"Dust, noise, air impacts, non-radiological water, or non-radiological effects, all of those things are examples of where they're outside of our regulatory authority, and so we won't be doing those in the future," he said.
NRC's chief environmental review and permitting officer, Kimyata Savoy, said the proposal would save reactor developers and the agency about $135 million in licensing costs for new reactors and license renewals.
Other measures under the proposal include new categorical exclusions, an update of environmental review procedures, and greater flexibility for applicants in providing environmental information.
The proposal follows a series of actions by President Donald Trump aimed at expanding nuclear power in the United States. Trump signed four executive orders on May 23, 2025, directing the NRC to license 10 new reactors by 2030 and supporting a plan to quadruple U.S. nuclear power capacity by 2050.
One of them, executive order 14300, directed the NRC to reform its licensing process. The White House said the commission had slowed nuclear development by imposing unnecessary regulatory requirements.
U.S. Energy Information Administration data show that last year, nuclear energy accounted for about 18 percent of U.S. utility-scale electricity generation.
Series of ReformsThe July 8 proposal comes one week after the NRC announced broader changes to reactor licensing and radiation safety regulations.
The agency on July 1 proposed replacing a radiation risk model that has guided U.S. nuclear regulation for about 50 years.
The NRC said the changes would modernize regulations and make it easier to build new reactors without reducing safety standards.
The proposal drew criticism from some nuclear safety experts.
Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in comments submitted to the NRC in July 2025 that there was "absolutely no technical or practical basis" for changing the agency's use of the "as low as reasonably achievable" standard.
The regulatory changes also coincide with progress in the administration's advanced reactor program.
The Department of Energy announced on July 1 that the third advanced nuclear reactor authorized under the administration's pilot program achieved criticality on June 30 at Idaho National Laboratory.
Criticality is the point at which a reactor reaches a stable chain reaction capable of producing electricity continuously.
The reactor, known as Unity and developed by Deployable Energy, met the July 4 deadline established by Trump's 2025 executive order, which required that at least three advanced reactor concepts achieve criticality outside national laboratories.
The cooling towers for units 4 (L) and 3 (R) at Plant Vogtle, operated by Georgia Power Co., in east Georgia's Burke County near Waynesboro, Ga., on May 29, 2024. Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 14:55As the high-stakes criminal investigation into Telegram nears its second year with no resolution in sight, French authorities have again summoned Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov for questioning. Durov spent around six hours being questioned at the Paris Judicial Tribunal on Wednesday, local media reported, citing law enforcement sources. He's allowed to travel internationally, and to live at his home in Dubai - though he's agreed specific judicial supervision rules, part of which is to periodically return to France when summoned.
It marked the fourth time the tech entrepreneur has been interrogated as part of the ongoing investigation, stretching back to his initial arrest in August 2024 at a Paris airport. He was soon after indicted on a dozen assorted charges ranging from complicity in illicit platform activity to non-cooperation with state authorities.
Durov’s legal team confirmed the questioning to AFP, slamming the lack of progress by French prosecutors, decrying that "almost two years after the indictment of Pavel Durov, there is still no evidence to establish the validity of the charges."
via ReutersAnd Telegram itself didn't hold back, releasing a statement which reads: "The only change since Durov’s detention in France is that French authorities have started properly drafting requests to Telegram,” the social media platform said separately.
Durov was originally banned from leaving the country, yet the travel restrictions imposed over the case were ultimately lifted, after he complied with court-ordered conditions.
While the French government position has been that Telegram's previous lax cooperation with authorities and lack of restrictions on the app have resulted in extremism and child abuse, there's been plenty of evidence that authorities are seeking to exploit it for surveillance and overreach.
As an example, Durov in 2025 in a viral post on X revealed that French authorities approached him through an intermediary, demanding Telegram remove several Moldovan channels.
While Telegram did take down some accounts at the time that violated its policies, Durov alleged the plot thickened when the intermediary relayed a shady offer: French intelligence promised to "put in a good word" with the judge overseeing his case if expanded cooperation.
"This was a blatant attempt to manipulate justice," Durov wrote, slamming the move as either interference in his legal case or a ploy to meddle in Moldova's elections. When a second list of "problematic" channels surfaced, the mogul said that nearly all were legitimate, with no violations of Telegram’s rules.
"We refused to comply," the mogul said. "Telegram stands for free speech. We will not remove content for political reasons, and I’ll keep exposing every attempt to bully our platform."
🇫🇷 Europe countries like France are becoming a vigilant bureaucracy against their own citizens free speech: Telegram founder Pavel Durov was grilled for over 6 hours by French investigators.
They accuse the app of weak moderation and not helping law enforcement enough.
His… pic.twitter.com/SzyjZk1NsG
Moldova has remained another classic case of a small Eastern European country and former Soviet republic which has been at the center of a pro-EU vs. Russian interests tug-of-war. Durov has continued to slam the whole case against him as a "legal absurdity."
Tyler Durden Fri, 07/10/2026 - 14:35