Commercial Low-Level Waste

The Utah State Senate will hold a hearing in coming weeks on the nominations of an EnergySolutions representative and a member of an environmental activist group to the reconstituted state Radiation Control Board. Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) included EnergySolutions Vice President of Environmental Compliance Dan Shrum and Sarah Fields with environmental group Uranium Watch […]

EnergySolutions “is not going to go away,” Alan Parker, president of EnergySolutions’ government group, told a crowd of radioactive waste professionals at the Sixth Annual RadWaste Summit in Las Vegas this week. “We are staying the course, and we know where we’re going,” Parker said, addressing the company’s recent top-tier management shakeup, in which both […]

EnergySolutions is looking to sell of its European business unit, which includes the company’s contract to manage the U.K.’s Magnox nuclear power stations. In a release issued yesterday, new CEO and President David Lockwood said that EnergySolutions had been approached by “third parties” over the potential purchase of its ESEU business, and that the company […]

Today marks the first step in discovery for the case in which Texas and Vermont generators are challenging disposal rates at Waste Control Specialists’ Andrews, Texas facility, with all parties to the case submitting requests for information to the Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings. “It allows each side, the generators and the operator, to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission today will hold its last public meeting on 10 CFR Part 61 low-level waste regulatory issues before staff return to the Commissioners for further feedback on the ongoing site specific assessment rulemaking. Unlike the other public meetings held earlier this year, the meeting—which will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. […]

US Ecology said an uptick in volume—notably from federal agencies including the US Army Corps of Engineers—and strong performance from its two recent acquisitions helped boost its second quarter earnings to $40 million, with net income of $6.4 million. Gross profit for the quarter was $17.3 million, up 32 percent from $13.1 million in the second […]

With its stock price currently at about $3.40 per share, EnergySolutions is exploring options to sell off a portion of the company, WC Monitor has learned. One candidate for such a move would be EnergySolutions’ government group business unit, which handles the company’s work in the Department of Energy’s cleanup program. In a written response […]

Following the abrupt removal of EnergySolutions Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer over the weekend, new CEO David Lockwood said in a call with investors yesterday that the EnergySolutions Board is “focused on maximizing shareholder value” going forward. WC Monitor and RW Monitor reported last week that EnergySolutions was considering selling a portion of the company […]

Capping off a troubled week for EnergySolutions, Standard & Poor’s Rating Services lowered the company’s corporate credit rating June 15 by two notches to “B,” from a previous rating of “BB-.” The move was based, in large part, on “added uncertainty stemming from the unexpected change in management” that occurred last week when EnergySolutions announced […]

The Electric Power Research Institute will holds its annual International Low Level Radioactive Waste conference this week, from Tuesday, June 19 to Friday, June 22, in Tucson, Ariz. On Friday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a public meeting on its revision to the 10 CFR Part 61 waste classification system in conjunction with the […]

Waste Control Specialists was unable to limit the discovery process of the one-year contested rate case hearing that began yesterday, meaning the details of its financial records are likely to be made public. In February, the South Texas Project, Luminant Energy, Entergy, The University of Texas, Texas A&M and others requested a contested case on […]

Looking to rebound from a disappointing first quarter, Perma-Fix Environmental Services is moving forward with a suite of cost-cutting measures that could include employee layoffs. Perma-Fix President and CEO Louis F. Centofanti outlined the plan in a message to employees late last week, obtained by WC Monitor. "The current environment has impacted our customers and […]

Another top executive within EnergySolutions is leaving as part of the company’s recent management overhaul: Chief Administrative Officer David Angerbauer. Just named CAO in February, Angerbauer was also acting as general counsel for the company until turning in his resignation last Friday, RW Monitor has learned. The move comes after EnergySolutions’ CEO Val Christensen and […]

The Texas Compact Commission late last week approved nearly a dozen import applications for more than 200,000 curies of waste to be sent to Waste Control Specialists for disposal as soon as this week. In two marathon meetings, one a joint committee meeting run late into the night June 28, and a full commission meeting […]

A Travis County, Texas District Court judge yesterday ruled in favor of the Sierra Club that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality should have held a contested case hearing about potential harm t nearby residents before licensing Waste Control Specialists’ Andrews, Texas radwaste disposal facility. The facility has begun accepting waste after opening April 27, […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s commissioners will consider a rule on what Texas Compact party waste can be incidentally commingled during processing at its meeting May 16. TCEQ’s Radioactive Materials Division issued its proposed rule April 27, with a tiered limit on percent of incidental commingling allowed, per waste stream, to be disposed of […]

EnergySolutions yesterday officially petitioned the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to allow shipments of Class B and C wastes in Type B casks to continue while it works to address a design flaw in those transportation containers. EnergySolutions is working to fabricate a part that will solve the design flaw, however “the design, licensing and modification will […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Commissioners voted unanimously yesterday to adopt a rule establishing limits of how much non-compact waste may be incidentally commingled with Texas and Vermont waste and still be disposed of at Waste Control Specialists as compact waste. The limits are separated into tiers based on waste streams by volume, radioactivity, […]

Financially troubled IMPACT Services, Inc. will shut its doors this week, RW Monitor has learned. “We were notified by several different licensees that IMPACT will shut its doors on Friday,” Meg Lockhart with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation told RW Monitor yesterday. “We have staff on-site now. IMPACT does have some staff, including […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has referred six requests for a contested rate case hearings for in-compact low-level radioactive waste disposal at Waste Control Specialists’ Andrews, Texas facility to the Texas State Office of Administrative Hearings. The six requests for a hearing came from Texas and Vermont radioactive waste generators, who have called for […]

Class B and C radwaste can begin moving across the country, including to Waste Control Specialists, again after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission late last week issued approvals for EnergySolutions’ Type B casks. EnergySolutions owns and/or schedules all four of the 8-120B casks that constitute the entire fleet of containers capable of transporting Class B and […]

Representatives from low-level radioactive waste disposal site host states continued to prod the Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday for additional oversight of the generators that ship them waste, even as they complained of being underfunded and short-staffed. At a meeting with all five NRC Commissioners yesterday, Earl Fordham, Chair-Elect of the Conference of Radiation Control Program […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality announced late last week that Charles Maguire, currently the director of the agency’s Water Quality Division, will replace Susan Jablonski as the director of the Radioactive Materials Division as of May 1. Maguire joined TCEQ in 2006, and has served until now in the Water Quality Division. He holds […]

Utah’s Division of Radiation Control late Friday issued approval for EnergySolutions to accept Class A sealed sources under a one-year license variance at the company’s Clive, Utah disposal facility. The variance will be enacted at the time of the first sealed source shipment. Under the terms of the variance, EnergySolutions will only be able to […]

The first shipment of low-level radioactive waste that will be disposed in Waste Control Specialists’ Andrews, Texas facility will be a Class B drum of medical sealed sources from Vermont, sent by Bionomics Inc., as early as April 23. Bionomics, based in Oak Ridge, Tenn., serves generators across the country, including in Texas and Vermont. […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality yesterday signed Amendment 14, the final approval necessary for Waste Control Specialists to schedule the first shipment of waste to be disposal at its Andrews, Texas disposal facility. The first shipment is expected to be a Class B cask of medical sealed sources from Vermont, shipped to WCS by […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality unveiled a more nuanced regulation governing disposal at Waste Control Specialists of incidental commingling as a result of radwaste processing. In a revised draft released late Friday, TCEQ laid out a tiered approach to incidentally commingled waste thresholds, separated by waste streams by volume, radioactivity, or weight. Waste from […]

After a schedule and cost analysis of its long-term decommissioning project at the Zion nuclear power plant revealed the project would cost more than the company originally planned, EnergySolutions reported a tax-adjusted net loss of $196.2 million, but revenue of $1.8 billion, for the year 2011 in its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. […]

Perma Fix yesterday gave a solid earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2011, and the year 2011 overall, in the wake of its acquisition of Safety and Ecology Corporation. Revenues for the full year were $118.5 million, and revenue for the fourth quarter of 2011 increased to $33.3 million, versus $25.5 million for the […]

The Texas Compact Commission will meet this week to vote on its proposed import rule, which would open Waste Control Specialists up to ink contracts for waste from across the country. The meeting will be held March 23 in Austin, Texas, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Capitol Extension building. The Texas Compact Commission has […]