Advanced Nuclear & SMRs

Another power-generation cycle is underway at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1, one of two reactors in which rods that help the National Nuclear Security Administration top off the tritium reservoirs of U.S. nuclear weapons are irradiated. The plant returned to operation on May 12 after a scheduled shutdown for maintenance […]

Another power-generation cycle is underway at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1, one of two reactors in which rods that help the National Nuclear Security Administration top off the tritium reservoirs of U.S. nuclear weapons are irradiated. The plant returned to operation on May 12 after a scheduled shutdown for maintenance […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration cold-shouldered Saudi Arabia recently when the Kingdom sought U.S. help establishing a civilian nuclear power industry, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said in a hearing Wednesday. “I believe it’s imperative that we have that relationship with Saudi,” Manchin told the heads of the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration cold-shouldered Saudi Arabia recently when the Kingdom sought U.S. help establishing a civilian nuclear power industry, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said in a hearing Wednesday. “I believe it’s imperative that we have that relationship with Saudi,” Manchin told the heads of the Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security […]

Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) came out against allowing the nuclear industry to tap into power plant decommissioning trust funds to pay for major equipment replacements during a plant’s lifetime. The reliably tough-on-nuclear Markey took his stand Wednesday during a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. He told the five members of the […]

An environmentalist group on Tuesday sued the operator of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, seeking to keep the facility’s recently bailed-out reactors from operating beyond 2025. If it keeps Diablo Canyon open until at least 2030, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) would violate a 2016 contract with Friends of the Earth which stipulated […]

Holtec Decommissioning International wants the state of Michigan to provide $300 million to restart the shuttered Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, a state lawmaker confirmed Tuesday. State Rep. Pauline Wendzel (R), first reported as one of two sources of the information by the local Herald-Palladium, confirmed the figure in an email Tuesday to the Exchange Monitor. State Rep. Joey Andrews […]

At the Department of Energy’s request, bidders on major nuclear cleanup contracts at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Kentucky and at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio have agreed to keep their bids on the table for 60 days longer than planned, industry sources said this week. Within the past week, DOE procurement officials asked […]

An environmentalist group on Tuesday sued the operator of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, seeking to keep the facility’s recently bailed-out reactors from operating beyond 2025. If it keeps Diablo Canyon open until at least 2030, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) would violate a 2016 contract with Friends of the Earth which stipulated […]

Holtec Decommissioning International wants the state of Michigan to provide $300 million to restart the shuttered Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, a state lawmaker confirmed Tuesday. State Rep. Pauline Wendzel (R), first reported as one of two sources of the information by the local Herald-Palladium, confirmed the figure in an email Tuesday to the Exchange Monitor. […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission understands the need to move quickly to renew the operating license for Diablo Canyon, California’s last operating nuclear power plant, an executive with plant operator Pacific Gas and Electric said Thursday in a webinar hosted by the American Nuclear Society.  The NRC seems to “get the urgency of this,” Maureen Zawalick, […]

By John Stang NuScale Power Corp. hopes to add three new clients 2023 to the two that it already has. The small modular reactor developer pinned down its second client in 2022, RoPower Nuclear S.A, which will build six reactors at a decommissioned coal-fired power plant site in Romania. “2022 was a year of increased […]

PHOENIX – With 2,700 participants walking through the sprawling Phoenix Convention Center, many of them young people hunting work in the nuclear industry, and hardly anybody wearing a mask, it’s easy to forget that three years ago, while the Waste Management Symposia was in session, the Work Health Organization declared the the 2019 coronavirus outbreak […]

The technology that powers the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s main nuclear-weapon testing center is a viable bedrock for a nuclear fusion power plant, the lab’s director testified Tuesday in Congress. Based on data available today from Livermore’s National Ignition Facility (NIF), “it is feasible to develop a fusion energy power plant based on the inertial […]

Sam Shakir, president of Westinghouse Electric Company’s operating nuclear power plant services, has left the company, the company said in a press release this week. Shakir’s departure was effective immediately, the company said. He had been head of Westinghouse’s operating reactors division for about eight months but has “decided to pursue opportunities outside of the […]

PHOENIX — Thanks to an updated agreement between the federal government and a nuclear power plant operator, owners of advanced nuclear reactors will likely have to foot the bill for spent fuel storage at their facilities, an industry expert said here this week. For advanced reactors, the new spent fuel management contract between the Department […]

PHOENIX — Thanks to an updated agreement between the federal government and a nuclear power plant operator, owners of advanced nuclear reactors will likely have to foot the bill for spent fuel storage at their facilities, an industry expert said here Wednesday. For advanced reactors, the new spent fuel management contract between the Department of […]

Sam Shakir, president of Westinghouse Electric Company’s operating nuclear power plant services, has left the company, the company said in a press release Monday. Shakir’s departure was effective immediately, the company said. He had been head of Westinghouse’s operating reactors division for about eight months but has “decided to pursue opportunities outside of the company,” […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Although your RadWaste Monitor reporter is a Ravens fan on a good day, he’ll be cheering on the other birds at the big game this weekend. Before Super Bowl festivities get underway, though, here are some other stories we were tracking from across the civilian nuclear power space this week. The only […]

For Bradley Crowell, the phrase ‘corner office’ has taken on a double meaning in recent months. The newest commissioner at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission occupies an office near the top floor of the agency’s Rockville, Md., headquarters in a jarringly angular concrete building that tapers off into a near 45-degree angle along the front wall. […]

The nation’s only nuclear power construction site will represent less than a tenth of total new generation capacity this year, the federal government’s independent energy auditor reported Monday. Although two new reactors with a combined capacity of 2.2 gigawatts (GW) are slated to come online in 2023 at Georgia’s Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Your RadWaste Monitor reporter headed up to his Bethlehem, Pa., field office and only just now found out about the upcoming arctic wind chill. Before we head off into the freezing weekend, though, here are some other stories we were tracking from across the civilian nuclear power space this week. Deputy Secretary […]

The National Nuclear Security Administration submitted a plan to Congress detailing the agency’s needs over the next decade for new experimental capabilities to test nuclear weapons and materials, a scientist from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory said Wednesday. Lasers, used at the Livermore’s National Ignition Facility (NIF) and the University of Rochester’s Omega Laser Facility, […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we head off into the weekend, here are some other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking from across the civilian nuclear power space this week. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week granted regulatory approval to NuScale Power’s small modular reactor design, the agency said Thursday in a Federal Register notice. The […]

The Department of Energy this week announced that Michael Goff has started as the number-two official for the agency’s nuclear energy office, according to a press release. Goff, who most recently served as a senior advisor to DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), will now oversee the division’s research and development portfolio as its principal […]

The Department of Energy Tuesday announced that Michael Goff has started as the number-two official for the agency’s nuclear energy office, according to a press release. Goff, who most recently served as a senior advisor to DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), will now oversee the division’s research and development portfolio as its principal deputy […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before we head off into the long weekend, here are some other stories RadWaste Monitor was tracking from across the civilian nuclear power space this week. In a press release this week, Holtec International announced a “technical breakthrough” that would allow the company to deploy its advanced reactor design at retired coal […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Your rad waste reporter is slowly recovering from a COVID-19 infection. Before we head off into the weekend, here are some other stories RadWaste Monitor was tracking from across the civilian nuclear power space this week. Holtec International this week claimed that it became the nation’s largest owner of nuclear decommissioning sites […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers, and happy holidays. Thanks for your attention to the world of civilian nuclear power this year (and congrats to Argentina's Lionel Messi for securing his GOAT status last week). Before we head off to close out 2022, here are some other stories RadWaste Monitor was tracking from across the industry this week. […]

The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used its bank of high-powered lasers on Dec. 5 to ignite a fusion reaction that produced more energy from a small pellet than the lasers put into the pellet, the lab said. The long-hoped for achievement marked “a new chapter in NNSA’s [National Nuclear Security […]