Decommissioning

Taxpayers in the United Kingdom are on the hook for up to £122 million in costs associated with a botched contract for decommissioning of the nation’s Magnox nuclear facilities, the U.K. National Audit Office said in a blistering report Wednesday. The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority announced in March that it would terminate the contract awarded in […]

The California Public Utilities Commission this week laid out an open-ended schedule for finally resolving the settlement over the premature retirement of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) after parties failed to reach an agreement by the August deadline. The decisions set forth an expedited schedule for hearings and filings to speed what Commissioner […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has unanimously voted to cut off a potential rule that would have required commercial nuclear facilities to promptly remediate radioactive contamination of surrounding ground, subsurface, and groundwater while still in operation. The three sitting commissioners voted in November and December 2016 to end the rulemaking. The notice was posted to the […]

Energy Department officials who attended a Monday meeting of the village of Piketon, Ohio, Council to give a progress update on cleanup of the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, ended up hearing a lot about local opposition to an on-site disposal site for waste from the project. It was a standing room only crowd, Piketon Mayor […]

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control expects cleanup work to begin at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) site in 2019 and possibly be finished in 2034, according to the timeline laid out in the agency’s latest monthly report on the radioactively contaminated 2,850-acre site in Ventura County. The Santa Susana project has been […]

The California Department of Toxic Substances Control expects cleanup work to begin at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) site in 2019 and possibly be finished in 2034, according to the timeline laid out in the agency’s latest monthly report on the radioactively contaminated 2,850-acre property in Ventura County. The Santa Susana project has been […]

Exelon Generation Co. plans to withdraw more than $4 million from the decommissioning trusts for its Quad Cities and Clinton nuclear plants in Illinois, primarily to cover expenses accrued last year when it anticipated closing the facilities. The majority of the costs were incurred for decommissioning planning between the time of the announced closure of […]

An AREVA-NorthStar Group Services joint venture no longer expects to seal the deal in 2017 on its first acquisitions of nuclear plants for decommissioning, an executive said Monday. The two companies in February announced the formation of Accelerated Decommissioning Partnership, which would buy closed nuclear plants and then carry out decommissioning, site restoration, and used […]

Thomas Gardiner The Palisades Power Plant in Michigan will remain operational more than three years longer than planned, to spring 2022, owner and operator Entergy announced Thursday following the mutual termination of plans for state utility Consumers Energy to buy the companies’ power purchase agreement. The announcement comes less than a week after the Michigan […]

The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on Friday said it had filed an official notice of termination for the Cavendish Fluor Partnership’s contract to decommission the nation’s 12 Magnox reactor sites. The contract will now end on Aug. 31, 2019, nine years earlier than planned when it was awarded in 2014. Cavendish Fluor will […]

In response to requests for more time, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control has extended by 45 days the public comment period on two draft documents for the planned cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) site. Stakeholders now have until Dec. 7 to provide input on DTSC’s draft program environmental impact report […]

The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority on Tuesday said 109 low-level radioactive waste “skips” have been removed from storage ponds at the closed Oldbury nuclear power plant in South Gloucester and prepared for storage. Used fuel elements were placed in the skips after being taken out of Oldbury’s two reactors. The completed skip-extraction process is […]

The Vermont Public Service Department has scheduled a number of depositions as part of the state’s ongoing review of the sale of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The sale of the shuttered facility from power company Entergy to NorthStar Group Services for decommissioning requires approval both from the Vermont Public Utility Commission and the […]

Thomas Gardiner The majority owner of the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California this fall plans official outreach to the potential new off-site home for its used reactor fuel, according to a senior executive. Late last month, Southern California Edison (SCE) announced the settlement of a lawsuit challenging its current plan to […]

The Department of Energy, NASA, and Boeing are wrestling with missed deadlines and expectations for the massive cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California, which was supposed to be well underway this year but remains largely in the planning stages. The state of California is still taking comments on two key documents for […]

The majority owner of the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California this fall plans official outreach to the potential new off-site home for its used reactor fuel, according to a senior executive. Late last month, Southern California Edison announced the settlement of a lawsuit challenging its current plan to place spent fuel […]

The state of California is taking comments on two key documents for cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, even as the Department of Energy has acknowledged it cannot meet the 2017 deadline for soil and groundwater remediation of a portion of the site. Interested parties have until Oct. 23 to submit comments by email, […]

Demolition of the shuttered vitrification facility at the West Valley Demonstration Project near Buffalo, N.Y., got underway last week, according to the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM). The West Valley Demonstration Project involves cleanup of a former commercial nuclear fuel reprocessing plant that shut down in the early 1970s. Part of the project, […]

The Vermont Public Service Department has scheduled a number of depositions as part of the state’s ongoing review of the sale of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The sale of the shuttered facility from power company Entergy to NorthStar Group Services for decommissioning requires approval both from the Vermont Public Utility Commission and the […]

The final paperwork is being filed to declare the Department of Energy’s X-326 building at Portsmouth, Ohio, “cold and dark” and ready for demolition, Robert Edwards, manager of DOE’s Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office, said Wednesday. The cold and dark designation could come in early 2018, Edwards and Dennis Carr, site director for Portsmouth cleanup contractor Fluor-BWXT […]

The final paperwork is being filed to declare the Department of Energy’s X-326 building at Portsmouth, Ohio, “cold and dark” and ready for demolition, Robert Edwards, manager of the DOE Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office, said Wednesday. The cold and dark designation could come in early 2018, Edwards and Dennis Carr, site project director for Portsmouth Site […]

Decommissioning of the radioactively contaminated STURGIS barge has resumed at the Port of Galveston after Hurricane Harvey swept through coastal Texas in late August, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday. There was no damage to the STURGIS or the decommissioning facility, and no signs that any radiation had been released into the environment, […]

The cleanup contractor for the Dounreay fast reactor site in Scotland said Tuesday it has begun extracting all leftover radioactive fuel elements from the nuclear facility. The majority of the core fuel was extracted shortly after the test reactor closed in 1977. However, roughly 1,000 fuel elements remained inside after they were found to be […]

The Department of Energy has officially acknowledged it will miss the Sept. 30 milestone set under the Tri-Party Agreement to have the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant torn down to slab on grade. The federal agency notified its regulators, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington state Department of Ecology, on Sept. 1.  “Tremendous progress […]

Workers have cut three of six planned holes in the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo, a nuclear waste storage facility at the United Kingdom’s Sellafield site, the U.K. National Decommissioning Authority announced Tuesday. The holes will be the means by which the waste material will be extracted from the silo on its way to permanent disposal. […]

Workers have cut the first of six planned holes in the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo, a nuclear waste storage facility at the United Kingdom’s Sellafield site, the U.K. National Decommissioning Authority announced Tuesday. The holes will be the means by which the waste material will be extracted from the silo on its way to permanent […]

The Department of Energy has officially acknowledged it will miss the Sept. 30 milestone set under the Tri-Party Agreement to have the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant torn down to slab on grade. The federal agency notified its regulators, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington state Department of Ecology, on Friday.  “Tremendous progress has […]

Hurricane Harvey does not appear to have done any damage to the STURGIS barge, which is being decommissioned at the Port of Galveston in Texas, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday. “A team member was able to assess the Port earlier this week and noted no visible damage to the project site or […]

Hurricane Harvey does not appear to have done any damage to the radioactively contaminated STURGIS barge, which is being decommissioned at the Port of Galveston in Texas, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday. “A team member was able to assess the Port earlier this week and noted no visible damage to the project […]

By Wayne Barber The parties to the 2014 ratepayer settlement for the premature retirement of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) told the California Public Utilities Commission on Aug. 15 that they have failed to negotiate a compromise on potential revisions to the deal. The commission had given the parties until that date to hammer […]