NRC Proposes to Replace ALARA Safety Principle Amid Trump’s Nuclear Expansion

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is moving to eliminate the “as low as reasonably achievable” (ALARA) principle that has guided radiation protection for five decades. Instead, the agency would adopt a “graded approach” that sets specific actions based on projected dose levels, while retaining existing maximum dose limits for workers and the public. NRC Chairman Ho Nieh has emphasized that the change does not lower safety standards, describing it as a clarification that removes regulatory ambiguity. The commission expects to finalize the new regulations in the coming months.

The Independent

President Donald Trump has directed the Energy Department to accelerate domestic nuclear power production to meet rising electricity demand from data centers and artificial-intelligence facilities. An executive order issued last year called for “science-based radiation limits,” prompting the NRC to reassess its framework. Currently, occupational exposure is capped at 5 rem (5,000 millirem) per year, and public exposure is limited to 100 millirem annually—roughly ten times the dose from a standard chest X-ray.

The Independent

Under the graded approach, facilities designing new, smaller reactors could proceed more quickly with clearer protection requirements, while large, existing reactors would see little immediate effect. The NRC also seeks to raise the radionuclide emissions standard for the public from 10 millirem to 25 millirem per year, based on a hypothetical resident at a plant’s property line. The agency argues that actual public doses will remain far lower because most people live farther from nuclear sites and benefit from environmental dispersion.

The Independent

• “We will always continue to look at what can we do to reduce the dose to workers, and maintain our doses to the off-site public as low as possible,” — Doug True, chief nuclear officer at the Nuclear Energy Institute

The Independent