As of January 12, 2026, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has ended the use of the “As Low As Reasonably Achievable” (ALARA) principle for radiation safety regulations.
The memo issued by Energy Secretary Chris Wright notes that, “In Executive Order (EO) 14301 (Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at DOE), the President concluded that the Nation’s “proud history of [nuclear] innovation has succumbed to overregulated complacency.” In EO 14300 ("Ordering the Reform of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission"), the President concluded that the principles and risk calculus underpinning current federal radiation protection rules are flawed and require revision. Specifically, Section 1 of EO 14300 criticized ALARA and the linear no- threshold (LNT) model on which it is based as follows: “Those models lack sound scientific basis and produce irrational results, such as requiring that nuclear plants protect against radiation below naturally occurring levels. A myopic policy of minimizing even trivial risks ignores the reality that substitute forms of energy production also carry risk, such as pollution with potentially deleterious health effects.”
It goes on to state that, “At the direction of DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), Idaho National Laboratory (INL) published a report (INL Report) in July 2025 that comprehensively reviewed and summarized available scientific literature on radiation exposure effects. The INL Report concluded: “The balance of available scientific evidence indicates that annual dose rates of 3,000 mrem or less have not been shown to result in detectable increases in adverse health outcomes across diverse human populations and exposure scenarios. Furthermore, substantial evidence suggests that even 10,000 mrem/ycar may maintain a reasonable safety margin based on available epidemiological and radiobiological data.”
Removing this absurd standard is an important step in clearing the path for accelerated nuclear energy development in the U.S., and around the world.
The Linear No-Threshold model (LNT)—the idea that there’s no “safe” dose of radiation–has gone hand in hand with ALARA; the model itself was based on Hermann Muller’s reports on studies he had performed, based on subjecting fruit flies to extremely high doses of X-rays caused what he reported were genetic mutations. He developed a hypothesis, called the “genetic load hypothesis,” that, given sufficient mutations over a long period of time (mulit-generational), the species would go extinct. Professor Edward Calabrese has thoroughly documented the origins and ascendancy of the LNT model.
