DOGE reorganization of nuclear regulator prompts concerns about the agency’s continued focus on safety

Amid a flurry of executive orders aimed at supercharging domestic nuclear energy production that President Donald Trump signed on May 23, one mandates the reorganization of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees the commercial nuclear industry. 

The order requires the NRC to streamline its operations to promote “expeditious processing of license applications and the adoption of innovative technology.” It also mandates workforce reductions, though it allows for staffing increases in areas like new reactor licensing. 

The executive order has drawn criticism from nuclear safety advocates and congressional Democrats, who warn that cutting regulatory staff at an agency already struggling to replace an aging workforce could compromise public health and safety. 

Edwin Lyman, the director of nuclear power safety at the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, said that Trump’s EO could “take talent and resources away from oversight and inspections and put them into licensing.” And while there may be more employees working on licensing, he doubts that the number of domestic nuclear energy facilities will actually substantially increase due to a lack of private investment. 

“It seems like they’re funneling resources away from what the NRC really needs to do to protect public health and safety and putting it toward some fantasy, in my view,” he said. “It’s totally misdirected.” 

Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, took particular issue with DOGE’s involvement in the mandated reorganization. 

“Allowing DOGE to blindly fire staff at the NRC does nothing to make it easier to permit or regulate nuclear power plants, but it will increase the risk of an accident,” he said in a statement. 

Republican lawmakers, however,  praised Trump’s nuclear energy EOs, contending they align with the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act — a bipartisan 2024 law to overhaul new reactor technology licensing.   

“As the demand for electricity increases, particularly from the growth of artificial intelligence, Energy and Commerce Committee Republicans will continue to work with the president to implement the [ADVANCE Act] and to modernize the [NRC] and help to achieve American energy dominance,” a panel spokesperson said in a statement to Government Executive. 

Likewise, a spokesperson for Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., the chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said that she will ensure the NRC “ambitiously implements” the 2024 law in alignment with Trump’s executive orders. 

“Chairman Capito applauds President Trump’s support for the nuclear industry and his goal to quickly deploy new nuclear reactors in pursuit of American energy dominance,” the official said in a statement.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., the ranking member of the Senate EPW Committee, did not respond to a request for comment. 

While Trump’s EO requires NRC to undergo a RIF, just two fiscal years ago the agency was trying to bring on hundreds of new employees. 

After several years of hiring restrictions due to a lack of funding and facing a workforce in which a third of employees were eligible for retirement, the NRC in fiscal 2023 set a goal to bring on 400 new staffers. Ultimately, the agency brought on just 281 new hires and was about 160 workers short of the number of positions it was budgeted to fill, according to a 2024 inspector general report. 

Additionally, the ADVANCE Act contains provisions intended to streamline hiring at NRC. 

The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents NRC workers, declined to comment. 

The May 23 EO also requires the NRC to reduce the personnel and functions of the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards to the “minimum necessary to fulfill ACRS’s statutory obligations.” The panel reviews safety studies and applications for reactor facility licenses and renewals. 

Lyman argued that weakening ACRS is problematic and counterintuitive. 

“They had expanded their membership and expertise to accommodate new reactor applications, especially new designs that use new technologies,” he said. “Now this order would force them to shed members of the committee and restrict the issues that they can actually look at and that is completely inappropriate and counterproductive.”

NRC is an example of an independent agency. Such agencies are designed to have some degree of separation from the White House. In his second term, Trump has sought to exert more influence over them. 

In February, the Trump administration fired hundreds of employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the nuclear weapons stockpile, but later rescinded most of the removals.