Interim Storage & Waste Disposal

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is seeking public comment on a draft study on whether removing spent nuclear fuel from storage pools reduces risks to public health and safety. The study, called for in response to the Fukushima plant disaster following an earthquake and tsunami, concludes there is approximately a one-in-10-million-years chance of a severe earthquake […]

The Department of Energy is “in some ways threading the needle of what needs to be done, and what can be done in policy space” in its work preparing to operate a pilot spent fuel storage site by 2021 per the Obama Administration’s January strategy, John Wagner, national technical director with DOE’s nuclear fuel storage […]

Nearly a year after the D.C. Circuit Court suspended the case that could force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to resume analyzing the Yucca Mountain spent nuclear fuel repository, “the court has still not acted,” Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and John Dingell (D-Mich.) wrote in an opinion piece in the LegalTimes yesterday. When the court suspended […]

The one-in-10-million-years chance of a severe earthquake causing a radioactive release from a spent fuel pool becomes even less hazardous when pools are packed to low density, and if mitigating measures are enacted after an incident, Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff told an internal agency review board yesterday.  A spent nuclear fuel storage pool like the […]

Following mounting concerns from Nevada officials about proposed shipments of uranium-233 to the Nevada National Security Site, Department of Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is planning to speak with Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) on the topic. Sandoval sent a letter to Moniz last month opposing the shipment of material from Oak Ridge National Laboratory to […]

Members of the Savannah River Site Citizen’s Advisory Board narrowly voted Monday night to back a paper opposing interim storage of commercial spent nuclear fuel. The CAB’s draft position paper against any interim storage was supported by 12 members, compared to 10 members who voted for a moderate position paper that supported exploring possible incentives […]

With some of the Department of Energy’s spent fuel monitoring plans at the Savannah River Site’s L-Basin facility on hold due to funding issues, the DOE Inspector General yesterday called for a firm timeframe for completing monitoring plans. The aging wet storage facility is used to hold about 15,000 spent fuel assemblies and could be […]

Petitioners filed their final brief yesterday in a case that aims to stop payments from utilities into the Nuclear Waste Fund for commercial spent fuel disposal. While the Obama Administration shuttered the Yucca Mountain project in 2010, DOE has still argued that it is necessary to continue collecting the fees, most recently in a court-mandated […]

Though he agreed that the spent nuclear fuel disposal issue “must be resolved for nuclear energy to grow,” Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) outlined House Republicans’ case for restarting the Yuca Mountain review, and against proceeding with interim storage as the Senate has proposed, at the Nuclear Energy Assembly meeting in Washington, D.C. yesterday. “I recognize […]

  The Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday released its finale rule adjusting security regulations for the transport of spent nuclear fuel. The amendments to regulations enhance preplanning and coordination with states and local law enforcement agencies; improve communications among movement control personnel; require armed escorts throughout the shipment route; develop normal and contingency response procedures; and […]

Petitioners in a case that would force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to complete the Yucca Mountain licensing process Friday urged the court to lift a hold on the case that has been in place since last August. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit placed the petition in abeyance until Dec. 14 to […]

The new entity charged with managing U.S. spent nuclear fuel should be further separated from political motivations, and shouldn’t be headed by a political appointee, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives J. Dennis Hastert said in comments sent to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee late last week. Hastert sent the letter […]

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said Friday that “in a week or two” he plans to discuss in detail plans for nuclear waste legislation. Wyden has been developing the legislation with Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Ranking Member Lamar Alexander […]

The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board is scheduled to visit Hanford this week to learn more about vitrification as a way to address high-level waste and to discuss other issues. The Board’s meeting is scheduled to be held April 16, and is set to involve presentations from senior officials in the Department of Energy’s offices […]

  The Department of Energy yesterday announced a new, five-year $15.8 million research and development project to be led by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) to “design and demonstrate dry storage cask technology for high burn-up spent nuclear fuels that have been removed from commercial nuclear power plants.” Private industry will contribute at least […]

Petitioners have filed an initial brief this week in a recently reopened case challenging the Department of Energy’s continued collection of the Nuclear Waste Fee from utilities following the shutdown of Yucca Mountain. The court reopened the challenge by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the Nuclear Energy Institute earlier this year after […]

  The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee yesterday launched a webpage to streamline stakeholder feedback on the nuclear waste legislation discussion draft, released last week. Stakeholders have until May 24 to submit comments. The senators provided a sheet of larger questions they hope to receive feedback on, and the website debuted yesterday also provides […]

  A draft bill rolled out by a bipartisan group of four senators last week to address future spent fuel management “suffers from a glaring omission” by not addressing how waste is currently stored at reactor sites, the Union of Concerned Scientists wrote in an op-ed in The Hill yesterday. Though spent nuclear fuel will […]

The Department of Energy is now only seeking responses from small businesses in a solicitation for a conceptual design for used fuel interim storage and transportation. When the sources sought notice was first posted on Jan. 23 there was no specification for small businesses, but a modification posted Friday “seeks responses from small businesses only […]

The region surrounding the Savannah River Site could contribute to the back end of the nuclear fuel cycle through R&D, reprocessing and consolidated storage of used fuel, according to a study released yesterday by the SRS Community Reuse Organization. However, any new nuclear facility must be supported by a community consensus, the report states, following […]

Print 0 46 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 The Department of Energy is now only seeking responses from small businesses in a solicitation for a conceptual design for used fuel interim storage and transportation. When the sources sought notice was first posted on Jan. 23 there was no specification for small businesses, but a modification posted […]

Petitioners in a case to force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to restart licensing of the Yucca Mountain repository submitted a filing with the Court urging them to act soon in light of the enactment yesterday of a funding bill for the remainder of the fiscal year. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit […]

The amount of carry over funding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has available for work towards licensing the Yucca Mountain repository has increased to $13.6 million, up from previous estimates of $10 million. The NRC reported the new figure Friday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which is deciding a case that […]

Legislation seeking to reform the process for entering into civil nuclear cooperation agreements with foreign countries is likely to be taken up once again by this Congress, according to a staffer for a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. A bill that cleared the Foreign Affairs Committee in 2011 would have required countries to either forswear the […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is in the final stages of completing work on the final environmental impact statement for Greater-than-Class-C waste disposal, officials said yesterday at the 2013 Waste Management Symposia. EM is “within a month or two” of finalizing the EIS, which will identify DOE’s preferred alternative for a Greater-than-Class-C […]

A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators should have draft language for a bill to address managing the nation’s spent nuclear fuel “within weeks,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) told press on the sidelines of an ARPA-E energy innovation summit yesterday. “I’m encouraged by the open meeting that we had, the four of us on the authorizing […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit yesterday reopened a case challenging the Department of Energy’s continued collection of the Nuclear Waste Fee from utilities following the shutdown of Yucca Mountain. This comes after the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners in late January asked the Court to reopen its case, originally decided […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s waste confidence efforts are unlikely to be among the programs impacted by sequestration, NRC Executive Director of Operations Bill Borchardt said yesterday at the agency’s Regulatory Information Conference. “The waste confidence rule is a very high-priority activity, so I think I can say with a fairly high degree of confidence that sequestration […]

Local communities in the Carlsbad, N.M., area have selected AREVA to develop an interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel and possibly defense waste on a parcel of land in southeast New Mexico. The decision by the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, a coalition of local governments that owns the land, comes after Fluor withdrew from consideration […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Nevada are pushing back against calls for a speedy decision by the federal court in the petition to force a restart of the agency’s Yucca Mountain licensing proceedings, stating that Congress could chime in during the upcoming lame duck session. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said […]