Decommissioning

The company in charge of decommissioning a Massachusetts nuclear power plant sought to set the record straight this week on its now-delayed plans to discharge the site’s wastewater into the Cape Cod Bay. Although Holtec has said that it won’t release any wastewater from Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station into the nearby bay this year, president […]

Despite some court setbacks for federal vaccination orders, a top manager with the Department of Energy’s Jacobs-led cleanup contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York said Wednesday his organization is sticking with its COVID-19 vaccination mandate. “We have actually chosen to maintain that mandate,” CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley’s president and general […]

North Wind Dynamics is poised to start a $135-million contract in charge of Infrastructure Services at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio. North Wind is “currently in transition” and will officially become the services contractor on Feb. 18, a company spokesperson said via email Wednesday. A DOE contract chart updated last week shows […]

Holtec International owes the feds another $50,000 stemming from security-related violations at a New Jersey nuclear plant under decommissioning, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Wednesday. According to a Thursday press release from the agency, Holtec, which is dismantling Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, will undertake “a series of corrective actions” designed to address this newest […]

The Department of Energy is planning to soon take some initial steps to nail down a process for allocating several billion dollars in federal funds to economically-troubled nuclear power plants, an agency spokesperson said this week. A Request for Information (RFI) and notice of intent from DOE related to the civil nuclear credits program greenlit […]

Holtec International has agreed to pay a six-figure fine for unspecified security violations at a nuclear power plant the company is decommissioning in New Jersey, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week. Holtec told NRC Jan. 7 that it intends to pay the $150,000 fine proposed in December for security violations at Oyster Creek Nuclear […]

Towing a popular line among industry and nuclear power advocates, executives at Exelon’s recently-named spin-off company Constellation said this week that the federal government can’t achieve its climate objectives without giving nuclear energy a hand. “[I]f we bring in new renewables, and all they do is replace lost nuclear generation, we will be running in […]

To date, four Republicans have announced plans to run for Rep. Tom Reed’s (R-N.Y.) seat representing New York’s 23rd Congressional District, which includes the West Valley Demonstration Project, a nuclear site being cleaned up by the Department of Energy. After a former lobbyist accused the lawmaker of sexual harassment last March, Reed, who has served […]

The company in charge of decommissioning a nuclear power plant on the Massachusetts shoreline should pursue “alternative methods of disposal” for the site’s spent fuel pool instead of releasing the irradiated wastewater into the Cape Cod Bay, the state’s Senate delegation said in a letter this week. Although Holtec International has delayed plans to discharge […]

Towing a popular line among industry and nuclear power advocates, executives at Exelon’s recently-named spin-off company Constellation said Wednesday that the federal government can’t achieve its climate objectives without giving nuclear energy a hand. “[I]f we bring in new renewables, and all they do is replace lost nuclear generation, we will be running in place,” […]

Holtec International has agreed to pay a six-figure fine for unspecified security violations at a nuclear power plant the company is decommissioning in New Jersey, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday. Holtec told NRC Jan. 7 that it intends to pay the $150,000 fine proposed in December for security violations at Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating […]

With only a single plant closure expected in 2022, the total generating loss in the U.S. attributable to nuclear energy should be relatively small this year, the Energy Information Administration forecast this week. The planned spring shutdown of Michigan’s Palisades Nuclear Generating Station should represent around 5% of the country’s total power plant retirements in […]

Despite the still-raging pandemic, Holtec International’s decommissioning and advanced nuclear business lines had a pretty good year, the nuclear services company said in a roll-up press release this week. The Camden, N.J., based Holtec moved 207 casks of spent nuclear fuel into dry storage at 21 plants around the world in 2021, the company said […]

The Department of Energy plans to extend its existing business agreement by one year with a contractor doing studies to support the federal agency’s remediation at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California, according to a procurement notice published Dec. 16. The DOE Office of Environmental Management published a justification on SAM.gov for extending a […]

The state of Illinois wants Washington to step up and save its economically-troubled nuclear power plants after the Prairie State’s multi-million dollar bailout bill expires, a state senator said this week. “[O]ur hope is that this issue will be taken on at the federal level and that it will have an answer at the federal […]

A private company’s plans to purchase and decommission two Michigan nuclear power plants took a step forward Monday, when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission provisionally approved the transaction, according to a new agency order. NRC staff approved the sale of Palisades Nuclear Generating Station and Big Rock Point Nuclear Power Plant to Holtec International from Entergy, […]

The top federal manager at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site said this week that cleanup of the Plutonium Finishing Plant is basically finished, while a nuclear boss with the Washington Department of Ecology indicated there is a general agreement about future remediation needs at the former plutonium production hub. Those were a couple of […]

More than 90% of the workers for CH2M HILL BWXT West Valley were vaccinated prior to a Dec. 8 deadline set by the contractor at the West Valley Demonstration Project site in New York state, deputy general manager Kelly Wooley told an online Citizen Task Force meeting Wednesday night.  As a result, federal court orders […]

Nuclear power’s share of U.S. electricity generation should continue to fall throughout this year and into the next, the government’s independent energy research authority forecast recently. Just about 20% of the country’s electricity will have come from nuclear power in 2021, a figure that should remain stable in 2022, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicted […]

The state of Illinois wants Washington to step up and save its economically-troubled nuclear power plants after the Prairie State’s multi-million dollar bailout bill expires, a state senator said Tuesday. “[O]ur hope is that this issue will be taken on at the federal level and that it will have an answer at the federal level,” […]

A private company’s plans to purchase and decommission two Michigan nuclear power plants took a step forward Monday, when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission provisionally approved the transaction, according to a new agency order. NRC staff approved the sale of Palisades Nuclear Generating Station and Big Rock Point Nuclear Power Plant to Holtec International from Entergy, […]

NRC Taking Comments on Church Rock Historical Preservation Agreement with Navajo Nation Members of the public have a little more than a month to submit comments on a proposed agreement between the federal government and the Navajo Nation aimed at mitigating the impacts of a former uranium mine and mill’s cleanup on indigenous artifacts in […]

Community members and other stakeholders gathered at a rally on the West Coast recently to show their support for California’s last nuclear power plant, slated to close in the coming years. Flying a small blimp with the phrase ‘save clean energy’ emblazoned on the side, demonstrators marched through San Luis Obispo, Calif., on Dec. 4 […]

The U.S. Supreme Court this week refused to hear an environmental watchdogs’ bid to stop the storage of spent nuclear fuel at a California nuclear power plant under decommissioning. The highest court in the land, an independent branch of the federal government, denied on Monday San Diego-based Public Watchdogs’ petition for review of a Ninth […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to approve the sale of two Michigan nuclear power plants to a decommissioning company by Dec. 13, the agency said in a letter last week. NRC will issue “an order approving the transfer of licenses” of both Palisades Nuclear Generating Station and Big Rock Point Nuclear Power Plant to Holtec […]

ALEXANDRIA, VA. — The demolition of the massive X-326 Process Building, which began in the spring, is underway and should be finished in summer 2022, an executive with the decommissioning contractor at the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio said at a conference here this week. “We are off to a very good start […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to approve the sale of two Michigan nuclear power plants to a decommissioning company by Dec. 13, the agency said in a letter last week. NRC will issue “an order approving the transfer of licenses” of both Palisades Nuclear Generating Station and Big Rock Point Nuclear Power Plant to Holtec […]

Community members and other stakeholders gathered at a rally on the West Coast this weekend to show their support for California’s last nuclear power plant, slated to close in the coming years. Flying a small blimp with the phrase ‘save clean energy’ emblazoned on the side, demonstrators marched through San Luis Obispo, Calif., on Saturday […]

Enviros Push Senate Finance to Kill Nuke Subsidies in Federal Budget A coalition of environmental and citizens’ watchdog groups urged the Senate Finance Committee to drop millions of dollars in subsidies for nuclear energy from the budget reconciliation bill containing President Joe Biden’s signature domestic spending programs, according to a letter mailed this week. The […]

There won’t be any significant environmental or safety issues if the Nuclear Regulatory Commission allows Holtec International to dip into a Michigan nuclear plant’s decommissioning funds for nuclear waste management, the agency said recently. Granting Holtec an exemption to use Palisades Nuclear Generating Station’s decommissioning trust fund for spent fuel management and site restoration actiavities […]