Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, October 16th, 2025

Posted: 17th October 2025

Read a shareable version of this newsletter in your browser.

October 16, 2025

(Photo illustration by François Diaz-Maurin, source images: White House, depositphotos.com)

President Trump’s radical attack on radiation safety

By Daniel Hirsch, Haakon Williams, Cameron Kuta

In May, President Trump issued a series of executive orders that require the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to consider dramatically weakening its radiation protection standard. If federal radiation limits are gutted, the new standard could allow four out of five people exposed over a 70-year lifetime to develop a cancer they would not otherwise get. Read more.

Will the Trump administration attempt to annex Greenland, Canada, or somewhere else? A prominent historian’s take

By Dan Drollette Jr

How seriously should the world take the Trump administration’s threats to annex the lands of other countries? Daniel Immerwahr, the author of How to Hide an Empire, says that while a land grab may seem an arbitrary and fanciful notion, it reflects a deeper and darker desire: the dismantling of the post-war international order and its norms. This Bulletin magazine article is available to all readers for a limited time.

Upcoming event

From spark to inferno: New model inspired by forest fires could explain why some ideas go viral

By Sara Goudarzi

A new model could help experts better understand—and possibly curb—misinformation, by identifying how and when information gains or loses strength as it moves through digital networks. Read more.

UPCOMING VIRTUAL EVENT

Your Data and Your Truth in the AI Era

The rise of social media has blurred the boundaries between fact and fiction. Viral content from unknown sources and weaponized narratives raise a troubling question: are you seeing what you want to see, or what others want you to see?

Join the Bulletin for a virtual discussion on data, truth, and the AI era on Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at 12:45 ET / 11:45 CT. Register to attend here.

Recent articles

• Despite what’s happening in the USA, renewables are winning globally

• A House of Dynamite: Bigelow’s latest thriller shows why nuclear bombs are only part of the danger
• How to design nuclear sanctions that don’t backfire
• Video: How AI and surveillance capitalism are undermining democracy
• How AI can—and cannot—improve verification of the Biological Weapons Convention

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Most SMRs are on paper [...] You just can’t get around economies of scale. These are fun ideas. But the tech bros don’t seem to be grounded in reality.”

— Allison Macfarlane, former chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada, “Why big tech’s nuclear plans could blow up,” BBC

Your gift fuels our mission to educate and empower. Together we will work to ensure science serves humanity.