Commercial Low-Level Waste

Environmental services provider US Ecology on Monday announced it would acquire an energy industry-focused remediation and response company. The $966 million, all-stock buyout of NRC Group Holdings (NRCG) is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of the year, pending stockholder and regulatory approval, according to a US Ecology press release. “This acquisition will […]

Environmental services provider US Ecology on Monday announced it would acquire an energy industry-focused remediation and response company. The $966 million, all-stock buyout of NRC Group Holdings (NRCG) is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of the year, pending stockholder and regulatory approval, according to a US Ecology press release. “The addition of […]

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) last week vetoed legislation that would have given Waste Control Specialists a two-year break on certain charges and fees for its radioactive waste disposal operations. “Senate Bill 1804 was a laudable effort to address domestic violence, until someone slipped in an ill-considered giveaway to a radioactive waste disposal facility,” Abbott […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it will provide Texas with multiple opportunities for input in potential development of a federal rule that could enable disposal of Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste in the state. That would encompass the public comment period for an upcoming NRC draft regulatory basis for GTCC waste disposition and […]

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) last week vetoed legislation that would have given Waste Control Specialists a two-year break on certain charges and fees for its radioactive waste disposal operations. “Senate Bill 1804 was a laudable effort to address domestic violence, until someone slipped in an ill-considered giveaway to a radioactive waste disposal facility,” Abbott […]

The Energy Department in today’s Federal Register formally published its reinterpretation of high-level radioactive waste. As announced last week and months ago, DOE interprets that the existing HLW definition means that not all wastes from spent fuel reprocessing are highly-radioactive. Some material on the less radioactive end of the traditional high-level spectrum could conceivably be […]

The Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site in Andrews County, Texas is still an attractive potential home for thousands of metric tons of elemental mercury. That’s according to a supplemental analysis published Monday by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. The document says facilities at WCS would still be a good option for storage of up to […]

The Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site in Andrews County, Texas is still an attractive potential home for thousands of metric tons of elemental mercury. That’s according to a supplemental analysis published Monday by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. The document says facilities at WCS would still be a good option for storage of up to 6,800 metrics […]

The Texas Legislature last week approved a bill that would delay by two years select charges and fees for operation of Waste Control Specialists’ (WCS) radioactive waste disposal facility. Two amendments from Rep. Alfonso Nevárez (D) were attached on May 22 to a state bill on domestic violence, which was passed in April by the […]

The Texas Legislature has approved a bill that would delay by two years certain charges and fees for Waste Control Specialists’ (WCS) radioactive waste disposal operations. Two amendments from Rep. Alfonso Nevárez (D) were attached to a state bill on domestic violence, which was passed in April in the Texas Senate and last week in […]

The Department of Energy is still waiting on action from Congress that would be necessary to carry out its legal requirement to dispose of the nation’s Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste, a senior official said last week. The agency has largely been in a holding pattern since issuing a November 2017 report to Congress […]

By John Stang Perma-Fix Environmental Services has borrowed $2.5 million from one of its shareholders to be used for general working capital. The Atlanta-based nuclear services provider recorded the April 1 transaction in a May 9 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The unsecured loan is from shareholder Robert Ferguson, who is […]

The Department of Energy is still waiting on action from Congress that would be necessary to carry out its legal requirement to dispose of the nation’s Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste, a senior official said last week. The agency has largely been in a holding pattern since issuing a November 2017 report to Congress […]

A panel of administrative judges at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday rejected all petitions for an evidentiary hearing to contest Holtec International’s license application for a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. The three-member Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) ruled that only three of six petitioning groups proved they […]

By John Stang Perma-Fix Environmental Services said Thursday that revenue in the first quarter of 2019 dropped by $1 million from the prior year, as the company’s services branch hit a lull in business. The Atlanta-based nuclear services provider said revenue fell from $12.7 million in first-quarter 2018 to $11.7 million in its latest earnings […]

Texas must have a say in approval of disposal of Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste in the state, Gov. Greg Abbott said in an April 26 letter to Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Kristine Svinicki. Proceedings underway at both federal agencies could ultimately open the door for disposal of […]

Texas must have a say in approval of disposal of Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste in the state, Gov. Greg Abbott said in an April 26 letter to Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Kristine Svinicki. Proceedings underway at both federal agencies could ultimately open the door for disposal of […]

Committees in both chambers of the Texas Legislature have advanced identical pieces of legislation intended to give Dallas-based Waste Control Specialists an edge in the market for disposal of low-level radioactive waste. The Texas House Environmental Regulation Committee on April 4 voted 5-3 in favor of Rep. Brooks Landgraf’s (R) H.B. 2269. On Monday, the state […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in stepping on federal law and its own regulations in re-assuming authority over disposal of “very low-level” radioactive waste by some facilities in agency agreement states, according to the trade group for the nuclear industry. In a Feb. 28 letter to the NRC, Nuclear Energy Institute General Counsel Ellen Ginsberg […]

Fifteen Democratic members of Congress from states with retired or soon-to-close nuclear power plants this week urged leading House appropriators to provide $25 million to help establish interim storage of radioactive waste. Two private corporate teams are seeking Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses for sites that could hold used fuel commercial power plants until the Department […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services said this week its fourth-quarter revenue slid from $12.6 million in 2017 to $11.7 million in 2018, largely due to the unexpected temporary shutdown of a radioactive waste processing facility in Richland, Wash. The roughly two-week outage at Perma-Fix Northwest in December generated an $800,000 hit to revenue, President and CEO Mark […]

The operator of a rural South Carolina disposal facility for low-level radioactive waste has not been practicing sufficient safety protocols to prevent contamination from leaking into groundwater, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. South Carolina’s highest court also found that Chem-Nuclear Systems LLC – the EnergySolutions-owned firm that operates the Barnwell Disposal Facility for the […]

International Isotopes said Tuesday said a 40 percent increase in revenue last year helped drive down its annual net loss by nearly $3 million, to $844,576. The Idaho Falls, Idaho, nuclear medicine producer said it boosted revenue in 2018 for three of its four business segments: cobalt products, nuclear medicine standards, and radiological services. In […]

By John Stang Utah Gov. Gary Herbert (R) said Monday he allowed a bill to become law without his signature that would ease the path for acceptance and storage of depleted uranium in the state. The law becomes effective March 28. “I have had reservations about how this legislation came forward. Nonetheless, I recognize the […]

International Isotopes said Tuesday a 40 percent increase in revenue last year helped drive down its annual net loss by nearly $3 million, to $844,576. The Idaho Falls, Idaho, nuclear medicine producer said it boosted revenue from 2017 to 2018 for three of its four business segments: cobalt products, nuclear medicine standards, and radiological services. […]

Legislation that would ease the path for acceptance of depleted uranium at a Utah radioactive waste disposal facility passed into law on Monday. Utah House Bill 220 became law without signature from Gov. Gary Herbert (R), according to an update on the state Legislature website. Herbert told The Salt Lake Tribune he allowed the bill […]

Stakeholders have nearly two months to request intervention and a hearing in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s review of plans for a waste repository at the Church Rock uranium mine cleanup site in New Mexico. General Electric subsidiary United Nuclear Corp. in September 2008 submitted an amendment request for its remediation project near the city of […]

Local community leaders are urging the Washington state Department of Ecology to expedite completing an environmental impact statement (EIS) and a revised permit for Perma-Fix Northwest in Richland, Wash., near the Hanford Site. The Department of Ecology said at a public meeting Wednesday in Richland on the scope of the EIS that the permit application […]

Local community leaders are urging the Washington state Department of Ecology to expedite completing an environmental impact statement (EIS) and a revised permit for Perma-Fix Northwest in Richland, Wash., near the Hanford Site. The Department of Ecology said at a public meeting Wednesday in Richland on the scope of the EIS that the permit application […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has scheduled a meeting for Wednesday as part of its preparation of a supplemental environmental impact statement for Perma-Fix Northwest in the city of Richland, near the Department of Energy’s the Hanford Site. Richland in 1998 conducted the last environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared for the plant, which treats […]