Decommissioning

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is cautious about meeting the hoped-for schedule to issue a decision on the license transfer application for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. The single-reactor facility on Cape Cod is scheduled for closure by June 1 of next year. New Orleans-based owner Entergy plans to sell the plant to New […]

Jacobs Engineering Group on Tuesday reported rrevenue of $4.1 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up significantly from the $2.7 billion reported a year earlier. Net earnings, however, showed a $23 million loss (-$0.16 per share) in the latest quarter compared to a $94 million or $0.78 per share, in net earnings for quarter […]

Dallas-based Jacobs Engineering Group will hold its quarterly earnings call with Wall Street analysts today at 10 a.m. ET. The financial performance figures for the quarter ended Sept. 30, which marks the end of the company’s 2018 fiscal year, will be released prior to the market opening. Access to the conference call webcast is available […]

Radioactively contaminated areas of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County, Calif., were not hit by the Woolsey Fire last week, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) said Monday. “Our staff were able to access the site Saturday morning and assess damage caused by the fire,” DTSC spokesman Russ Edmondson said […]

By John Stang The Omaha Public Power District Board of Directors voted unanimously Thursday to have the Nebraska utility remain in charge f decommissioning the Fort Calhoun Station nuclear power plant, with assistance from a hired contractor. There was little public discussion on the decision before the board voted on a resolution setting the path […]

The owner and prospective owner of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts on Friday filed the application and related paperwork for transferring the plant’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission license. Entergy wants to sell the soon-to-close single-reactor facility to Holtec, which would then own its decommissioning trust fund and all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and […]

Radioactively contaminated areas of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County, Calif., were not hit by the Woolsey Fire last week, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) said Monday. “Our staff were able to access the site Saturday morning and assess damage caused by the fire,” DTSC spokesman Russ Edmondson said […]

The Board of Directors for the Omaha, Neb., Public Power District indicated Monday it is continuing to seek a vendor to decommission the retired Fort Calhoun Station nuclear power plant. “We’re still working on our decommissioning methodologies and we have another presentation for the Board of Directors in a closed session,” Mary Fisher, OPPD vice […]

The municipality that is home to the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station and two local organizations have requested public hearings on the proposed transfer of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for the newly retired New Jersey power plant. Among the concerns cited by Lacey Township, the Concerned Citizens of Lacey Coalition, and the New Jersey […]

A fire charring much of Southern California probably is not expected to spread contamination left by old nuclear operations at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control said Friday. On Thursday, the so-called Woolsey Fire burned an area within the 2,800-acre site, used over the years […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week began its full review of a license transfer application that would return control of the nearly decommissioned La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor in Wisconsin to its owner. The nuclear power plant has been closed since 1987, and Dairyland Power Cooperative in March 2016 received NRC authorization to transfer […]

Southern California Edison could face up to five violations from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a mishap in placing a canister of used nuclear fuel into storage at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). Two potential violations are considered “escalated” — a major classification, according to an NRC online briefing Thursday on its […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week began its full review of a license transfer application that would return control of the nearly decommissioned La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor in Wisconsin to its owner. The nuclear power plant has been closed since 1987, and Dairyland Power Cooperative in March 2016 received NRC authorization to transfer […]

Southern California Edison has put in a new top manager for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) following an August mishap in transfer of spent fuel at the retired power plant. In a statement Tuesday, the utility said Vice President of Operational Services Doug Bauder would take over on Nov. 12 as chief nuclear […]

Cost overruns for core cleanup projects at the United Kingdom’s Sellafield nuclear site are expected to total £913 million ($1.16 billion), the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee said Wednesday. In a report on the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s efforts to reduce the risk left by former nuclear weapons and power operations at the complex […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies has selected executive David Brown to head a joint venture, BWSR LLC, focused on decommissioning and tearing down facilities at Naval Nuclear Laboratory sites. As president of BWSR, Brown will lead the 250-person BWXT Technical Services Group-APTIM Federal Services team that provides cleanup at sites under contract to Fluor Marine Propulsion […]

Parties to a settlement agreement and memorandum of understanding for the planned sale of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant are allowing another month to secure final regulatory approval necessary for the deal. The new date at which parties are authorized to withdraw from the settlement, if the Vermont Public Utility Commission has not ruled […]

By John Stang Southern California Edison believes it has enough money to tear down and dispose of the final two reactor units at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), with little likelihood of additional funds being needed, according to its parent corporation’s latest 10-Q filing with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission. The utility […]

Entergy expects the license transfer application for its Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts to proceed through review by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission more quickly than the recently wrapped process for the Vermont Yankee power plant, an executive said Wednesday. In both cases, the New Orleans-based energy provider wants to sell the facility to […]

Lynchburg, Va.-based BWX Technologies has named David Brown to lead a joint venture, BWSR LLC, focused on decommissioning and tearing down facilities at Naval Nuclear Laboratory sites. Brown will lead the 250-person BWXT Technical Services Group-APTIM Federal Services team that provides cleanup at sites under contract to Fluor Marine Propulsion in Idaho, Pennsylvania, and New […]

Cost overruns for core cleanup projects at the United Kingdom’s Sellafield nuclear site are expected to total £913 million ($1.16 billion), the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee said Wednesday. In a report on the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s efforts to reduce the risk left by former nuclear weapons and power operations at the West […]

Southern California Edison believes it has enough money in its decommissioning trust fund to tear down and dispose of the final two reactor units at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), with little likelihood of additional funds being needed, according to its parent corporation’s latest 10-Q filing with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission. […]

Parties to a settlement agreement and memorandum of understanding for the planned sale of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant are allowing another month to secure final regulatory approval necessary for the deal. The new date at which parties are authorized to withdraw from the settlement, if the Vermont Public Utility Commission has not ruled […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved Exelon’s request for an exemption to federal regulations so the power company can use part of the decommissioning trust for its Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station for related but otherwise prohibited cleanup operations. However, the exemptions will be effective only so long as Exelon owns the single-reactor plant in […]

Warship builder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) hopes its ownership of a nuclear cleanup business will offer an opportunity to break into for what is expected to be a growing market for decommissioning of commercial atomic energy plants “Our group is very focused on determining the right way for us to focus in the commercial D&D […]

By John Stang “Multiple performance deficiencies” contributed to an August mishap in the transfer of spent reactor fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California, and could have led to a storage container being dropped nearly 20 feet, according to initial findings from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. At the top of […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday it is considering sending the nation’s entire stock of Greater-Than-Class C and GTCC-like low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) for disposal at a specialized facility in West Texas. The proposal is addressed in a site-specific assessment of the potential environmental effects of shipping and holding the material at the Federal Waste […]

The Southwest Experimental Fast-Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) in Arkansas moved closer to final remediation this week when contractor EnergySolutions removed the reactor from the containment building and placed it into a shipping container. Moving the roughly 90,000-pound reactor with a large crane took less than 30 minutes Monday, EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker said by telephone Wednesday. […]

The contractor in charge of decommissioning and decontamination of the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio, earned $24.3 million of a potential fee of almost $33 million for the 16-month period ended Sept. 30, 2017. The Energy Department’s recent release of the performance scorecard for Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth comes a couple weeks after the agency […]

By John Stang The fact that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission tweaked the conditions for transferring the licenses for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is cause for the state Public Utility Commission to reject the plan as it currently stands, an environmental group argued in a new filing Wednesday. Among the organizations authorized to […]