Minimize Harm and Security Risks of Nuclear Energy
NRDC works to reduce the dangers of nuclear energy in every form, from uranium mines to warheads to waste piles.
Our
environmental experts and litigators sue the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission when it fails to consider full environmental impacts in
licensing uranium mining. And we push the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency to strengthen standards for uranium mining, as current
regulations have failed to protect the environment against contamination
from past and present operations. Our work also includes, blocking
nuclear reprocessing for energy, and developing a scientifically sound
deep geologic repository for spent nuclear fuel.
Our physicists and nuclear
energy experts urge U.S. regulators, as well as the entire nuclear power
industry, to examine the public safety consequences of severe accidents
triggered by unexpected floods, fires, earthquakes, and explosions. Our
advocates are pushing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to better avoid
and reduce the impacts of nuclear accidents at the 99 operating
reactors in the United States by increasing safety requirements of
nuclear reactor licensing and creating ways for people to monitor
radiation in their environment.
Our weapons
experts continue to assess the global stockpiles of nuclear warheads. We
conduct workshops with the Institute for USA and Canadian Studies of
the Russian Academy of Sciences to examine the future of U.S.–Russian
arms control. We are urging both nations to discuss requirements for
small, stable, “minimum deterrent” forces and to clarify the role of
missile defense systems. In that vein, we advocate to strengthen nuclear
arms control and reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons. And we work to
make existing nuclear arsenals safer by increasing nuclear warning and
decision times.
