The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday
proposed overhauling its safety rules for radiation exposure from nuclear power plants, saying that the current regulations are too costly and go beyond what is needed to protect human health.
The N.R.C. would keep its existing limits on the maximum amount of radiation that workers and the public can receive each year. But it is proposing to eliminate a principle in place for decades that said nuclear-plant operators should keep radiation exposure “as low as reasonably achievable.” In some cases, that meant regulators could order plants to install additional equipment to drive radiation exposure far below the legal limits.
The agency said that this often led to additional costs “without a measurable safety benefit.” It added that the maximum dose limits were already set “well below levels associated with known health effects.”
