Holtec International

A petition review board at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued final rulings against requests by two advocacy organizations to halt the decommissioning and spent-fuel offload at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California. The petitions from Public Watchdogs and Oceansiders Against San Onofre Corruption do not meet the acceptance criteria for reviews […]

The Department of Energy plans to take bids on the design of a facility for interim storage of used reactor fuel from nuclear power plants, a senior official said Tuesday. Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal discussed the upcoming procurement in a hearing on the new DOE budget proposal before the House Appropriations energy […]

The Department of Energy will seek neither to license a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, nor a federal facility for temporary centralized storage of the radioactive material, Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said Thursday. His comments come after Brouillette’s predecessor, Rick Perry, said last fall the agency also has no legal authorization […]

Complications with the B61-12 and W88 Alt-370 programs might delay production of new intercontinental ballistic missile fuzes at the Kansas City National Security Campus by more than a year, Pentagon budget documents show. The Air Force will need 10 months longer than expected, 41 months total, to purchase long-lead parts for the the ICBM Fuze […]

A working group of staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is scheduled in March to issue a formal set of recommendations to enhance financial assurances for decommissioning of nuclear power plants. Senior managers at the agency established the working group last September to consider the matter in the face of a growing trend in the […]

By John Stang Strong investment returns on the decommissioning trust funds for the Pilgrim and Indian Point nuclear power complexes helped Entergy improve its financial pictures for 2019. The better numbers came from a mix of financial sources – along with the decommissioning trust returns, Entergy benefited from more favorable income tax returns, lower asset […]

The Trump administration this week publicly played down any appearance that recent comments from a senior Department of Energy official indicate continuing commitment to building a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev. Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes “and The Department of Energy fully support finding an alternative to Yucca Mountain for the storage of […]

Good investment returns on the decommissioning trust funds for the Pilgrim and Indian Point nuclear power complexes helped Entergy improve its financial pictures for 2019. However, the Pilgrim fund is no longer part of Entergy’s corporate finances, Chairman and CEO Leo Denault noted in a Wednesday teleconference with analysts on the New Orleans-based power company’s […]

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he plans to nominate Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes to take over as deputy secretary for the Department of Energy. Menezes would succeed Dan Brouillette, who in December was confirmed and sworn in as secretary of energy. The nomination for the No. 2 spot at DOE had not been […]

By John Stang The New York state Attorney General’s Office and three other parties this week filed petitions for hearings with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the proposed license transfer and sale of the Indian Point Energy Center. Along with the Attorney General’s Office, the petitioners are: jointly the town of Cortlandt, village of Buchanan, […]

Even as it abandoned efforts to revive the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, the Trump administration on Monday signaled plans for the federal government to resume collecting fees for the fund intended to pay for the facility. The White House budget for fiscal 2021 provides nothing to resume the long-moribund licensing for radioactive […]

The New Mexico House of Representatives is considering a measure that would express its opposition to plans for a facility in the state intended to temporarily store spent reactor fuel from nuclear power plants around the nation. The House Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Committee on Feb. 3 approved House Memorial 21, sponsored by panel […]

The New York state Attorney General’s Office and two other parties this week filed petitions for hearings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the proposed license transfer and sale of the Indian Point Energy Center. Along with the Attorney General’s Office, the petitioners are: jointly the town of Cortlandt, village of Buchanan, and Hendrick Hudson […]

Comprehensive Decommissioning International (CDI) has secured the contract for decommissioning the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts, one of the company’s owners said Monday. The deal is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin stated in a press release. It was signed on Jan. 31, CDI spokesman Pat O’Brien said by […]

By John Stang Arguing that a worst-case scenario could result in geysers of radioactive water erupting on the California coast, an advocacy organization filed a new petition Tuesday to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to stop the decommissioning of the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. (SONGS). SONGS majority owner Southern California Edison countered that the […]

Comprehensive Decommissioning International (CDI) has secured the contract for decommissioning the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts, one of the company’s owners said Monday. The deal is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin stated in a press release. It was signed Friday, CDI spokesman Pat O’Brien said by email. The […]

Legislation introduced Wednesday in the New Mexico Senate would update the responsibilities of the state’s Radioactive Waste Consultation Task Force to include oversight of commercial spent nuclear fuel storage. The task force was established in the 1978 state Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Act, largely to act as the New Mexico government’s negotiator for siting, licensing, […]

By John Stang Two California advocacy organizations pitched their cases this week to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission against on-site storage of all spent reactor fuel at the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). This was essentially both groups — Public Watchdogs and Oceansiders Against San Onofre Corruption— trying to persuade the federal regulator […]

New York state’s elected leaders are leaving no doubt that they have questions and concerns about the planned sale of the soon-to-close Indian Point Energy Center. As the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday began accepting requests for hearings on the federal license transfers needed for the deal to proceed, New York Attorney General Letitia […]

Another California advocacy organization pitched its case Wednesday to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission against on-site storage of all spent reactor fuel at the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). Following a Tuesday presentation from the San Diego-based Public Watchdogs, Oceansiders Against San Onofre Corruption made its arguments to the NRC’s Petition Review Board […]

Legislation introduced Wednesday in the New Mexico Senate would update the responsibilities of the state Radioactive Waste Consultation Task Force to include oversight of commercial spent nuclear fuel storage. The task force was established in the 1978 state Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Act, largely to act as the New Mexico government’s negotiator for siting, licensing, […]

A California advocacy group took its latest crack Tuesday at persuading the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to order a halt to decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The NRC’s Petition Review Board heard Public Watchdogs’ case for approval of a 25-page petition filed in September. The meeting was not a hearing, but […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week it has reduced the liability insurance requirements for both on-site and off-site damage at the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. The agency issued the regulatory exemptions to subsidiaries of plant owner Holtec International on Jan. 6, according to separate notices Monday and Tuesday in the […]

The state of New York is objecting to a request by power company Entergy for federal approval to reduce staffing at the Indian Point Energy Center as its two remaining operational reactors are retired over the next 16 months. Three separate state agencies have reviewed the plan, filed last April with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday it has reduced the insurance requirements for the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. The agency issued the regulatory exemption to subsidiaries of plant owner Holtec International on Jan. 6, according to a notice in the Federal Register. It allows Holtec Pilgrim and Holtec Decommissioning International to […]

By John Stang A California environmental organization called this week for a second utility to justify a request for a threefold spending increase from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s decommissioning trust fund. On Tuesday, San Diego County-based Public Watchdogs asked the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to hold an evidentiary hearing on San Diego […]

Holtec International believes it can complete decommissioning of the three nuclear reactors at the Indian Point Energy Center in upstate New York in 15 years at a cost of $2.3 billion, according to a new filing with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The New Jersey energy technology specialist plans to buy the Buchanan, N.Y., facility […]

By John Stang Cramming work from three other years into 2020 justifies a threefold increase in spending this year from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s decommissioning trust fund, Southern California Edison wrote Thursday. The new estimate of $461.8 million dwarfs the old estimate of $166.3 million, which the company drew up in 2017: the […]

Holtec International believes it can complete decommissioning of the three nuclear reactors at the Indian Point Energy Center in upstate New York in 12 to 15 years at a cost of $2.3 billion, according to a new filing with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Power company Entergy said in April it would sell the Buchanan, […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission since July has conducted more than a dozen unannounced inspections of spent fuel transfer operations at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California. The inspections are part of the agency’s response to several problems in the project, notably an August 2018 incident in which a canister was put […]