Interim Storage & Waste Disposal

A compromise defense policy bill published Monday would authorize all the nuclear weapon spending the Department of Energy sought for fiscal 2020, bar the agency from downgrading the hazard classification of certain nuclear waste in Washington state, and prohibit defense funding for the proposed Yucca Mountain permanent waste repository. The House is set to vote […]

Four members of Michigan’s delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday urged Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to ensure his nation does not build a radioactive waste disposal site near the Great Lakes. The lawmakers said they were concerned by reports that the Canadian government is approaching a decision on the location for […]

The draft environmental impact statements (EIS) for two planned consolidated interim storage sites for used fuel from nuclear power plants are due next spring, officials said last week during a meeting of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The environmental documents are central to the agency’s decision on whether to issue licenses for construction and operation […]

The federal fund intended to pay for the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., held $40.9 billion in U.S. Treasury securities at the end of fiscal 2019 on Sept. 30, according to the latest audit from the Department of Energy. That was up from $39.2 billion in the Nuclear Waste Fund at the close […]

Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) said on Nov. 26 it had narrowed to three the number of communities being considered to host a deep geologic repository for spent fuel from nuclear power plants. In a site-selection process that began in 2010 with 22 candidate sites, the remaining locations are the township of Ignace in […]

Radioactive waste transport and management provider Orano TN has a new president, its parent company announced this week. Longtime General Electric executive Amir Vexler started at Orano TN this month, according to his LinkedIn profile. “Amir’s energy and expertise are the right mix for our TN business,” Orano USA CEO Sam Shakir said in a […]

Perma-Fix Northwest accepted a $23,275 fine for its failure in 2013-2014 to ensure it had sufficient third-party liability coverage for its Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) radioactive waste facility in Richland, Wash., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday. Representatives for the federal agency and the company signed a consent agreement on Aug. 12. The […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in October spent $485 of its remaining balance from the federal Nuclear Waste Fund, leaving it with $405,992 absent further appropriations from Congress. As has been the case for most of the year, the agency spent just a few hundred dollars on unspecified program planning and support, according to the […]

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday confirmed Dan Brouillette to be the 15th secretary of energy by a 70-15 vote, setting the stage for former secretary Rick Perry’s deputy to lead the roughly $30-billion-a-year agency responsible for U.S. nuclear weapons, waste, and energy. A Department of Energy spokesperson did not immediately reply to a query about […]

The federal fund intended to pay for the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev., held $40.9 billion in U.S. Treasury securities at the end of fiscal 2019 on Sept. 30, according to the latest audit from the Department of Energy. That rose from $39.2 billion in the Nuclear Waste Fund at the close of […]

Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) said Tuesday it had narrowed to three the number of communities being considered to host a deep geologic repository for spent fuel from nuclear power plants. In a site-selection process that began in 2010 with 22 candidate sites, the remaining locations are the township of Ignace in northwest Ontario […]

The U.S. Department of Energy spent $8.6 million during the last fiscal year on remediation of a cesium-137 spill at a hospital research facility in Seattle. Remediation is ongoing at the Research and Training Building for the University of Washington’s Harborview Medical Center, according to Al Stotts, a spokesman for DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security […]

The White House on Friday announced its intention to nominate David Wright to a full term on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Wright has served on the commission since May 2018. He assumed a seat vacated by Commissioner Jeff Baran, which expires on June 30, 2020. Baran, a commissioner since 2014, last year was confirmed […]

The U.S. Senate will vote Dec. 2, its first day back in Washington after Thanksgiving holiday break, on Dan Brouillette’s nomination to head the U.S. Department of Energy. The floor vote should occur around 5:30 p.m. ET that day, according to a Thursday Twitter post by the Senate’s Republican majority staff. Earlier Thursday, the Senate […]

The U.S. Energy Department has roughly 6,500 cubic meters of transuranic waste yet to be shipped from the Idaho National Laboratory to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico, an agency spokesperson said by email Nov. 15. That is about 10% of the 65,000 cubic meters of transuranic waste supposed to move from […]

A board of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday reversed a prior order to allow the Sierra Club to argue one case against licensing of a facility in West Texas for temporary storage of spent fuel from nuclear power plants. The NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) also rejected the environmental organization’s motion […]

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – The head of the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy on Monday said she was committed to studying the potential use of advanced reactors in recycling radioactive spent fuel from nuclear power plants. Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal, though, said that storage and permanent disposal of that waste […]

RadWaste Monitor will not be published on Nov. 29 in observance of the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 6.

A House of Representatives committee on Wednesday passed a bill intended to advance centralized storage and permanent disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste, while the long-promised Senate version of the legislation was finally filed. The effectively identical iterations of the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 contain a set of measures to assist the […]

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed another stopgap spending bill that will keep the federal government running nearly three months into the 2020 budget year. Major news organizations reported the president signed the agreement after the Senate earlier in the day voted 74-20 to pass a House amendment that extends the current continuing resolution to […]

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) strategy to reboot its tritium-production enterprise went about as smoothly as it could have in fiscal 2019. And even if it is not a perfect microcosm of the whole nuclear security enterprise, it’s tough to ignore the similarities. First, as with just about everything else it makes or […]

A board of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday reversed a prior order to allow the Sierra Club to argue one case against licensing of a facility in West Texas for temporary storage of spent fuel from nuclear power plants. The NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) also rejected the environmental organization’s motion […]

A House committee on Wednesday passed a bill intended to advance centralized storage and permanent disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste, while the long-promised Senate version of the legislation was finally filed. Rep. Jerry McNerney’s (D-Calif.) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 contains a set of measures to assist the Department of Energy in […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee pushed back by at least one day its review of legislation intended to jump-start centralized storage and ultimately disposal of radioactive waste now dispersed around the country. The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019, from Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), was one of 18 bills scheduled for markup on […]

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – The head of the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy on Monday said she was committed to studying the potential use of advanced reactors in recycling radioactive spent fuel. Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Rita Baranwal, though, said that storage and permanent disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste also remain […]

The House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled Tuesday to consider legislation intended to advance storage and disposal of the nation’s nuclear waste. The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019, from Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), is one of 18 bills due for markup starting at 10 a.m. The bill contains various amendments […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has “no authority” under federal law to issue contracts for any commercially operated facility for temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in a recent letter to a member of Congress. That runs counter to the business plans laid out by both corporate teams seeking federal […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management is starting market research for vendors to provide low-level and mixed low-level waste treatment services. The nuclear cleanup office on Tuesday issued a request for information (RFI)/sources-sought notice for waste treatment services at various sites across the DOE complex. The Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center said […]

Radioactive waste disposal startup Deep Isolation said Monday it has inked a cooperative agreement with spent nuclear fuel storage and transportation provider NAC International. The agreement covers collaboration in designing, developing, and producing Deep Isolation’s canister technology for disposal of spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, according to a press release from the Berkeley, […]

By John Stang The chair of a key U.S. Senate committee said Thursday she hopes to have a new secretary of energy confirmed in time to take office when Rick Perry steps down from the position on Dec. 1. “My intention is to move you through the committee process as fast as possible,” Senate Energy […]