“End Nuclear Insanity Before Nuclear Insanity Ends Humanity”
Dec 02, 2025
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NRC’s Rushed Approval of Bill Gates’ Experimental Wyoming Nuclear Reactor will Imperil Public Health, the Environment
Published Dec 2, 2025
Article link from LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY, below . . .
Nuclear Power
NEWS Link:
Nuclear Reactor Imperils Health, Environment
Union of Concerned Scientists
NRC’s Rushed Approval of Bill Gates’ Experimental Wyoming Nuclear Reactor Will Imperil Public Health, the Environment.
LLAW’s Nuclear World’s Thoughts Today . . .
A potential Cowboy Chernobyl in Wyoming? My own home State? It could happen and if it does, Donald Trump will be a huge part of the blame! . . . Read on! . . .
Everyone on planet Earth who sees this outrageous and incredibly dangerous decision — once again thoughtlessly initiated by Donald Trump — ought to be willing to find a way to pass this article (link is above) to every citizen in the USA — or the world for that matter — because it is so egregious that I can barely stand to write this potential horror. This kind of lunacy and political interference, short-cutting the plant’s design plan study, is what caused the horrifying nuclear Chernobyl accident that is still being “cleaned up” after a catastrophic design failure in the spring of 1986 and has removed an entire city’s population and untold animal life from the radiation that the Chernobyl accident has caused between 4,000 and 16,000 deaths from radiation exposure . . . ~llaw
WASHINGTON (December 2, 2025)—Yesterday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced that its technical staff had completed an expedited safety review of an application to construct a $10 billion, 345-megawatt experimental sodium-cooled fast nuclear reactor in Kemmerer, Wyoming. The Natrium reactor was designed by TerraPower, a company co-founded by billionaire Bill Gates, and is the recipient of a 50-50 cost-share grant (up to $2 billion) from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.
Review of the construction permit application, which was submitted in March 2024, was originally scheduled to be completed in August 2026. However, as the result of political pressure from both Congress and the White House, NRC staff curtailed their review and issued a safety evaluation nine months early, conforming to the 18-month review timeline mandated by President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14300. If NRC commissioners approve the permit, as expected, then TerraPower will be able to begin construction of the reactor shortly thereafter.
Below is a statement by Dr. Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“The NRC’s rush to complete the Kemmerer plant’s safety evaluation to meet the recklessly abbreviated schedule dictated by President Trump represents a complete abandonment of its obligation to protect public health, safety and the environment from catastrophic nuclear power plant accidents or terrorist attacks. The only way the staff could finish its review on such a short timeline is by sweeping serious unresolved safety issues under the rug or deferring consideration of them until TerraPower applies for an operating license, at which point it may be too late to correct any problems. Make no mistake, this type of reactor has major safety flaws compared to conventional nuclear reactors that comprise the operating fleet. Its liquid sodium coolant can catch fire, and the reactor has inherent instabilities that could lead to a rapid and uncontrolled increase in power, causing damage to the reactor’s hot and highly radioactive nuclear fuel.
“Of particular concern, NRC staff has assented to a design that lacks a physical containment structure to reduce the release of radioactive materials into the environment if a core melt occurs. TerraPower argues that the reactor has a so-called ‘functional’ containment that eliminates the need for a real containment structure. But the NRC staff plainly states that it ‘did not come to a final determination of the adequacy and acceptability of functional containment performance due to the preliminary nature of the design and analysis.’ Even if the NRC determines later that the functional containment is inadequate, it would be utterly impractical to retrofit the design and build a physical containment after construction has begun. The potential for rapid power excursions and the lack of a real containment make the Kemmerer plant a true ‘Cowboy Chernobyl.’
LLAW’s NUCLEAR WORLD NEWS TODAY
About Today’s Nuclear News and How it Works:
There are 7 categories, including a bonus non-nuclear category for news about the Yellowstone caldera and other volcano and caldera activity around the world that also play an important role in the survival of human and other life.
The feature categories provide articles and information about ‘all things nuclear’ for you to pick from, usually with up to 3 links with headlines concerning the most important media stories in each category, but sometimes fewer and occasionally even none (especially so with the Yellowstone Caldera). If there was no news from a Category today, the Category will not appear. The Categories are listed below in their usual order:
- All Things Nuclear
- Nuclear Power
- Nuclear Power Emergencies
- Nuclear War Threats
- Nuclear War
- Yellowstone Caldera
- IAEA News (Friday’s only) (Not available today)
A current Digest of major nuclear media headlines with automated links is listed below by nuclear Category (in the above listed order). If a Category heading does not appear in the daily news Digest, it means there was no news reported from this Category today. Generally, the three best articles in each Category from around the nuclear world(s) are Posted. Occasionally, if a Post is important enough, it may be listed in multiple Categories.
Nuclear World News, Monday, (12/02/2025)
All Things Nuclear
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NEWS
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American Nuclear Society
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Union of Concerned Scientists
NRC’s Rushed Approval of Bill Gates’ Experimental Wyoming Nuclear Reactor Will Imperil Public Health, the Environment.
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Nuclear Power Emergencies
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The Japan News
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Constellation Tests Emergency Sirens Dec. 2 – Oswego County
Oswego County
During the test, 40 sirens in the 10-mile radius surrounding the nuclear plants in Scriba will sound for three minutes. Additional single-siren tests …
Nuclear War Threats
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Russia, US threatened to resume nuclear testing after decades. Here’s why it matters
ABC News
The U.S. and Russia have both recently threatened to resume nuclear testing, alarming the international community and jeopardizing a global norm …
Israel’s biosecurity vulnerable to bioterrorism threats – The Jerusalem Post
The Jerusalem Post
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… nuclear weapons have created a world without credible war threats between . … war, or even the credible threat of war, between major powers.
Nuclear War
NEWS
Russia, US threatened to resume nuclear testing after decades. Here’s why it matters
ABC News
“Because of other countries’ testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis …
Russia and the US threatened to resume nuclear testing after several decades. Here is why it matters
AP News
The U.S. and Russia have both recently threatened to resume nuclear … Israel-Hamas War Russia-Ukraine War Español China Asia Pacific Latin America …
Elon Musk says major war, possibly nuclear, is coming within 5 or max 10 years
India Today
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Yellowstone Caldera
WEB
Lots of small earthquakes happen in Yellowstone. This week’s Caldera Chronicles … – Facebook
Lots of small earthquakes happen in Yellowstone. This week’s Caldera Chronicles reports on artificial intelligence approaches that can locate …
Yellowstone Volcano Update: Exploring the Differences with Hawaii’s Volcanic Activity – Instagram
Yellowstone’s volcanic activity is closely monitored, with recent earthquakes and ground deformation data providing insights into the region’s …
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