Beyond Nuclear Bulletin
November 13, 2025
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AT WHAT COST?
Make Atoms Great Again
Is President Trump looking to “Make Atoms Great Again” with a national energy policy that financially partners the federal government with private nuclear industry? It starts with $80 billion from the Department of Energy’s loan and grant programs converted into federal equity stakes to support Westinghouse Electric’s expansion of its AP1000 reactor fleet. After Westinghouse clears a profit the government takes its 20% stake from the company’s subsequent profits.
The big question arises with the Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s announcement to an American Nuclear Society’s November conference that most of the DOE entire loan and grant program is going to expand the US domestic reactor fleet. Isn’t this a conflict of interest for independent federal regulatory oversight and licensing?
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HOLTEC IS RECKLESS
Engineers doubt Palisades' safety
Two nuclear engineers with nearly a century of combined experience question the safety of Palisades atomic reactor's degraded steam generator tubes, as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is poised to approve Holtec's unprecedented restart scheme by year's end. Arnie Gundersen, with 54 years experience, warned Holtec needed to implement a wet layup to preserve Palisades' fragile, safety-critical tubes. Last January, NRC staff confirmed Holtec had neglected that basic maintenance from 2022-24, causing severe, widespread cracking. Alan Blind, with 40+ years experience, points out Holtec's own Operability Assessment admits only 50% confidence the steam generators will operate for even 18 months without a tube failure. A single tube burst will release radioactivity into the environment. Cascading failure can cause meltdown.
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NRC’s INSIDE MAN
Trump loads the majority
President Trump has already dismissed Democratic commissioner Christopher Hanson from his seat on the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, even though Hanson’s term was not due to expire until June 2029. That opened up a majority seat for a third Republican. Trump’s nominee Ho Nieh has been approved by the Senate EPW Committee and awaits a vote from Congress. Now Trump has picked an industry insider, Douglas Weaver (pictured) for the fifth seat, replacing fellow Republican Annie Caputo who abruptly resigned in July. Weaver has been employed by both Holtec and Westinghouse, two nuclear companies hoping to see their new projects “rubber stamped”, as ordered by the White House and even more likely now with Trump’s inside man sitting on the commission.
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SILKWOOD, PRESENTE!
Commemorating her death, 51 years on
On November 13, 1974, nuclear whistleblower and Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers union member Karen Silkwood died in a highly suspicious car crash. She was en route to meet a New York Times reporter, to deliver a file of documents that went missing from the fatal scene. The 28-year old mother was survived by two young children. Silkwood supporters, including the anti-nuclear power couple Kitty Tucker (1944-2019) and Bob Alvarez (1948-2025), raised awareness about Silkwood's case, and helped win a settlement with Kerr-McKee, which ran the Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site, a nuclear weapons complex production facility in Crescent, Oklahoma where Silkwood worked and organized. Silkwood's story inspired a Hollywood blockbuster, multiple books, and the movement.
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