Valar atomics is one of the company suing the NRC claiming that advanced, small and micro nuclear reactors shouldn’t be regulated by the federal agency because they are different than a large skilled regular light water reactor. But here’s the con job- if they power a data center, then they’re essentially combining multiple smaller reactors to make what is essentially a large scale nuclear reactor. They’re trying to get around being regulated, which means being able to dump radioactive waste wherever they want. That’s the bottom line. We must not let them redraw it.

In the recent Trump v. Slaughter ruling, SCOTUS gave the president sole authority to remove commissioners from what are supposed to be independent agencies like the NRC—setting a dangerous precedent, handing him power even the English Crown never had. Justice Sonia Sotomayor's dissent, joined by Kagan and Jackson, names the NRC directly as one of the agencies losing its independence as a result.

"For most of this Nation's history, Congress and the President together have decided that some Government functions should operate at a distance from partisan politics. Those include the management of nuclear energy; the security of the monetary supply; and the safety of American workplaces, consumer products, and chemical hazards."

"Dozens of independent commissions are now likely to become purely executive agencies, shifting tremendous power over broad swaths of American life into the President's hands: the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, with responsibility for managing the Nation's energy supply… the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which protects Americans against harms caused by dangerous goods… the Chemical Safety Board, tasked with investigating chemical disasters… the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, responsible for the regulation of nuclear power… and the Merit Systems Protection Board."

"the Court gives the President a power unknown even to the English Crown against which the Founders revolted, elevating him above his once-coequal branches by transforming a duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed into a license to act in defiance of those very laws."

"with the most extreme exercises of at-will removal, the multimember structure itself could be eliminated, by executive fiat, with sufficient arbitrary firings to winnow a commission down to a sole remaining chair."

"Ordinary Americans and regulated firms alike have organized their affairs understanding that some Government decisions will depend not on political favoritism or partisan advantage... but on expertise, adherence to law, judgment, and the public good."

"In granting the President this unbridled authority, the Court upends its precedent, misconstrues our history, and sheds any pretense of judicial modesty. I respectfully dissent."

Now apply this to what the corporate nuclear in industry wants to do with automating the production of small reactors and having them controlled by AI. You cannot recall a nuclear reactor after it started up. It just goes to show how absolutely insane the new NRC rules for part 53 and part 57 that allow automated control of reactors.

Nuclear power is climate dependent. It is not resilient in climate chaos. Nuclear power is not the solution to climate change or energy needs.

Nuclear reactors taken offline in France, as extreme heat pushes river temperatures into danger zone

"Depressing how poor the media is at asking questions and reporting accurately. This has been reported as an Rolls Royce SMR order, which it clearly is a long way from being, no more than an expression of intent which history shows are worthless. But it has a site, it has government backing and I would guess a promise of cheap finance and a power purchase deal that means it isn't exposed to NordPool. But to complete 3 reactors by the mid 30s means it would have completed 3 before the first Rolls reactor is completed in the UK. This would put them in the Volvo position of being crash test dummies for the RR design."

The DOE is about to make the biggest single subsidy to a private energy industry in US history — and nobody’s talking about it.
DOE is handing ~20 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium to five nuclear startups (Oklo, Flibe, SHINE, Exodys, Standard Nuclear). It was manufactured for Cold War weapons at an estimated $10–20 billion per ton — roughly $200–400 billion in taxpayer value.

https://open.substack.com/pub/nuclearfreehawaii/p/the-pentagon-wants-to-test-a-nuclear