Commercial Decommissioning

The Vermont Public Utility Commission this week issued a new schedule that extends by several months its review of the planned sale of the shuttered Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station from owner Entergy to decommissioning specialist NorthStar Group Services. The schedule updates specific dates for document filings and hearings through the week of Jan. 29, […]

The Vermont Public Utility Commission on Monday issued a new schedule for its review of the planned sale of the shuttered Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station from owner Entergy to decommissioning specialist NorthStar Group Services. The schedule updates dates for document filings and hearings through the week of Jan. 29, 2018. However, some activities by […]

The U.S. Transportation Department would receive the $3 million it requested for fiscal 2018 to continue storing a retired nuclear-powered freighter in Baltimore Harbor as part of a $56.5-billion Transportation, Housing and Urban Development spending bill the House Appropriations Committee approved Monday. The merchant ship NS Savannah, now moored at Canton Marine Terminal’s Pier 13, was launched in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a regulatory conference for Thursday, July 13, to discuss a preliminary “Greater than Green” safety finding at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. Plant operator Entergy requested the meeting to provide its perspective on the finding, which involves its apparent failure to monitor or maintain a valve installed in […]

By Wayne Barber The two largest utility owners of the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California this week said they should not be required to stop collecting ratepayer revenue in the contested 2014 settlement for the plant’s early closure. Southern California Edison (SCE) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) both filed […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a regulatory conference for Thursday, July 13, to discuss a preliminary “Greater than Green” safety finding at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. Plant operator Entergy requested the meeting to provide its perspective on the finding, which involves its apparent failure to monitor or maintain a valve installed in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday issued a notice of violation against the owner of the shuttered Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station for a onetime employee’s repeated failure to check radiation detection systems. The NRC’s Office of Investigations found that a senior radiation protection technician, who is no longer working at the Entergy plant, from […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday issued a notice of violation against the owner of the shuttered Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station for a onetime employee’s repeated failure to check radiation detection systems. The NRC’s Office of Investigations found that a senior radiation protection technician, who is no longer working at the Entergy plant, from […]

Exelon last week formally notifed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of its plans to permanently close the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The company’s Exelon Generation subsidiary on May 30 announced the planned closure of the plant’s reactor Unit 1. Official notice to the agency that regulates commercial nuclear power operations is a […]

The California Public Utilities Commission must direct Southern California Edison to stop collecting ratepayer revenue in the settlement for the early closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, consumer attorneys said in a new filing Monday. The commission in May 2016 reopened the 2014 settlement, under which ratepayers would pay $3.3 billion of the […]

By Wayne Barber Now that Entergy has completed its final refueling for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass., the company and other stakeholders are increasingly looking toward plant retirement in 2019 and the decommissioning process. Entergy completed its final refueling in May. On June 15, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held an agency […]

Four Northeast states are calling for better consideration of states’ needs in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s decommissioning rulemaking. The rulemaking, due for completion in 2019, is intended to improve the process for decommissioning of nuclear power reactors, notably by limiting the need for regulatory exemptions on select operational matters such as decommissioning trust funds, emergency […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 9 said it has begun the technical review of the Energy Department’s request for a 20-year license extension for storage in Idaho of debris from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The Energy Department submitted the request by letter on March 6, after which the NRC carried out an acceptance review […]

By Wayne Barber Duke Energy expects to finish building a dry cask storage facility at the retired Crystal River 3 nuclear plant in Florida sometime this year, and all used nuclear fuel assemblies will be transferred from the fuel pool into dry casks by February 2018, a utility spokesperson said this week. Crews will begin […]

The parties to the planned sale of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station have not proven there is sufficient funding available to carry out the full decommissioning of the shuttered facility, the state of Vermont said this week. In a filing Tuesday with the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, the state requested intervention and […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 9 said it has begun the technical review of the Energy Department’s request for a 20-year license extension for storage in Idaho of debris from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The Energy Department submitted the request by letter on March 6, after which the NRC carried out an acceptance review […]

Duke Energy expects to finish building a dry cask storage facility at the retired Crystal River 3 nuclear plant in Florida sometime this year, and all used nuclear fuel assemblies will be transferred from the fuel pool into dry casks by February 2018, a utility spokesperson said this week. Crews will begin moving used nuclear […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday said it has begun the technical review of the Energy Department’s request for a 20-year extension of storage in Idaho of debris from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. DOE submitted the request by letter on March 6, after which the NRC carried out an acceptance review of the […]

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)-Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) – together with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – will soon publish new guidance on improving cost estimates of nuclear decommissioning projects. Simon Carroll, a senior analyst with the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority, told delegates at the Nuclear Decommissioning & Waste Management […]

Exelon said May 30 that “absent needed policy reforms” it will retire its 837 MW Three Mile Island Generating Station (TMI) near Harrisburg, Penn., by September 30, 2019. Chris Crane, president and chief executive of Exelon, held out the caveat that the reactor could operate beyond that point if Pennsylvania follows the lead of New […]

Exelon said May 30 that “absent needed policy reforms” it will retire its Three Mile Island Generating Station (TMI) near Harrisburg, Penn., by September 30, 2019. Chris Crane, president and chief executive of Exelon, held out the caveat that the reactor could operate beyond that point if Pennsylvania follows the lead of New York and Illinois […]

A federal judge on May 19 authorized the state of Nevada and nuclear power industry representatives to intervene in Texas’ lawsuit demanding the federal government move ahead expeditiously with a permanent repository for the nation’s nuclear waste. Judge Patrick Higginbotham, of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, did not provide the reasoning for his separate […]

Nonbinding votes throughout Cape Cod, Mass., this spring demonstrated strong support for moving spent reactor fuel at the nearby Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station from wet to dry storage, an anti-nuclear advocacy group said this week. Residents in 14 communities in the region were asked whether their town government should urge Gov. Charlie Baker “to employ […]

The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station is providing energy again following a final refueling ahead of its scheduled closure two years from now, operator Entergy said Monday. The 45-year-old Massachusetts nuclear plant was removed from the grid in early April and reconnected at 1:52 a.m. Monday, according to an Energy press release. This was its 21st refueling. “Entergy […]

By Wayne Barber Power provider Entergy is wrestling with regulatory issues for the spent fuel pool at its Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its latest quarterly report for the Massachusetts facility. Entergy has announced plans to retire the 680-megawatt Pilgrim reactor by June 1, 2019, primarily due to continued low […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that further action is not immediately necessary to ensure safe operations of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. The finding follows a supplemental inspection that ended this year following three NRC site visits to the nuclear plant. “The NRC determined that programs and processes at PNPS adequately support […]

Chicago-based power provider Exelon’s adjusted income and diluted earnings per share dipped in the first quarter, which the company capped off by completing its acquisition of the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York state. Net income, on a non-generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis, fell from $632 million in first-quarter 2016 to […]

The Community Engagement Panel for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California will at its May 11 meeting discuss opportunities for sending the plant’s waste to other locations. The question of what to do with SONGS’ waste is already the focus of one lawsuit against the state (now in settlement talks) and much […]

The federal civil antitrust trial over the planned merger of radioactive waste management providers Waste Control Specialists and EnergySolutions was scheduled to close today in U.S. District Court for Delaware. In the two-week bench trial, the Department of Justice laid out its case why the $367 million deal would deny competitive benefits to customers for […]

Chicago-based power provider Exelon’s adjusted income and diluted earnings per share dipped in the first quarter, which the company capped off by completing its acquisition of the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York state. Net income, on a non-generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis, fell from $632 million in first-quarter 2016 to […]