Interim Storage & Waste Disposal

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday turned back an effort to resume licensing of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository as it approved legislation to fund the Department of Energy and other agencies for fiscal 2020. In the late minutes of a seven-hour markup of two appropriations bills, the Democrat-led panel voted 25-27 against approving […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday turned back a proposal to resume licensing of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository as it approved legislation to fund the Department of Energy and other agencies for fiscal 2020. The panel voted 31-21 to report the $46.6 billion energy and water development appropriations bill to the full House. […]

The House Appropriations Committee this morning will resume the debate over funding licensing of a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev. The fiscal 2020 energy and water development bill scheduled to be marked up in committee starting at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time zeroes out the White House request for roughly $150 million for licensing […]

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is among a growing list of presidential candidates voicing opposition to disposal of nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “Trump is proposing to send our nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain,” Sanders tweeted on May 16. “That would be a disaster. We must stop building new nuclear power plants, and find […]

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine wants the Department to Energy to ensure additional sampling for potential contaminants is done in time for Pike County officials to decide whether to reopen a middle school near the Portsmouth Site after summer vacation. The governor wants to resolve the question of any potential health threats at Zahn’s Corner Middle […]

The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled Tuesday to consider an energy and water funding bill that, for the first time in years, provides no money to resume federal licensing of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Instead, the legislation would offer an unspecified appropriation for initial interim storage operations for spent reactor fuel […]

A bipartisan duo on Tuesday reintroduced legislation in the House of Representatives intended to help the federal government finally build a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev. The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 is a slightly updated version of legislation introduced in 2017 by Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.). That bill advanced out […]

WASHINGTON — Plans for consolidated interim storage of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors leave questions about the ultimate disposition of that radioactive material once a facility’s federal license expires, former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said Monday. Speaking at a Capitol Hill event on nuclear decommissioning, Jaczko posited a scenario in which […]

Local authorities near the Energy Department’s Portsmouth Site in southern Ohio say research by Northern Arizona University supports their concerns about radioactive contamination at a nearby middle school. There is “a reasonable degree of scientific certainty” that the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant complex is the source of enriched uranium and neptunium-237 found around Zahn’s Corner […]

Despite complaints from two senior Republicans, the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee on Wednesday signed off on a new spending bill that would provide no money for licensing the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nev. The $46.4 billion energy and water appropriations legislation for fiscal 2020, filed Tuesday, includes funding for the […]

Local officials around Pike County, Ohio, met Monday with the head of the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management to discuss apparent radiological contamination at a middle school adjacent to the Portsmouth Site. During the meeting, DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White said the agency won’t suspend construction of the on-site […]

The House Appropriations Committee’s draft fiscal 2020 energy and water bill provides no money to resume federal licensing of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Instead, the legislation would provide an unspecified appropriation for initial interim storage operations for spent reactor fuel from commercial nuclear power plants, according to a press release from […]

A bipartisan duo of House lawmakers on Tuesday introduced legislation intended to help the federal government finally build a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev. The Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019 is a slightly updated version of legislation introduced in 2017 by Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.). That bill made it out of the […]

WASHINGTON — Plans for consolidated interim storage of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors raise questions about the ultimate disposition of that radioactive material once a facility’s federal license expires, former Nuclear Regulatory Chairman Gregory Jaczko said Monday. Speaking at a Capitol Hill event on nuclear decommissioning, Jaczko posited a scenario in which the […]

The federal government is not likely ever to secure local consent for disposal of spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactors, but that approach could nonetheless be tested in a plan for temporary storage of the radioactive material, according to a former head of the Energy Department’s Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM). “Consent-based siting […]

By John Stang The proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada could conceivably end up receiving 150,000 metric tons of radioactive waste by the second half of this century, according to a Nevada state government analysis of a proposed U.S. Senate bill intended to advance the disposal project. The April 29 memo from […]

The California Coastal Commission is tentatively scheduled in June to consider a permit that would allow major decommissioning to begin at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California. “Commission staff is presently planning on the item being heard at the Commission’s June meeting, but this schedule is not final and could be subject […]

A panel of administrative judges at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday rejected all petitions for an evidentiary hearing to contest Holtec International’s license application for a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. The three-member Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) ruled that only three of six petitioning groups proved they […]

The federal government must be allowed to resume the long-delayed licensing for a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Thursday. In testimony on Capitol Hill, Perry suggested he is not committed solely to one disposal location, but rather to finally ending a decades-long impasse on finding a permanent […]

SHINE Medical Technologies on Thursday broke ground on a production plant for the medical isotope molybdendum-99. The 43,000-square-foot plant in Janesville, Wis., will ultimately house eight accelerator-based manufacturing systems that could meet more than one-third of worldwide need for the isotope, SHINE said in a press release. The company has said it hopes to reach […]

A panel of administrative judges at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday rejected all petitions for evidentiary hearings to contest Holtec International’s license application for a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. The three-member Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled that only three of six petitioning groups proved standing to participate […]

The proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada could conceivably end up receiving 150,000 metric tons of radioactive waste by the second half of this century, according to a Nevada state government analysis of a proposed U.S. Senate bill to speed up that project. The April 29 memo from Bob Halstead, executive director […]

Holtec International said Monday it was beginning two months of final testing of the dry-storage facility for used nuclear fuel at the onetime Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. “These functional dry runs follow a long series of exhaustive tests of the individual systems, structures and components within the spent nuclear fuel processing and storage […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March spent just $128 of its remaining balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund, according to its latest update to Congress. That left the agency with $407,102 in unspent, unobligated funding for work on licensing a federal repository for disposal of spent nuclear reactor fuel and high-level radioactive waste from […]

George Vaughan has started a third stint at used nuclear fuel storage provider NAC International, now as vice president for business development. In this role, Vaughan will lead “evaluation, analysis and advancement” of new business opportunities, both in the United States and abroad, the Atlanta-based company said in a press release Friday. Vaughan previously worked […]

Texas must have a say in approval of disposal of Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste in the state, Gov. Greg Abbott said in an April 26 letter to Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Kristine Svinicki. Proceedings underway at both federal agencies could ultimately open the door for disposal of […]

The Omaha, Neb., Public Power District (OPPD) on Monday announced it had hired nuclear services firm EnergySolutions to support decommissioning of the retired Fort Calhoun Station power plant. EnergySolutions will provide “technical and specialized project expertise,” while OPPD personnel will manage the overall decommissioning, according to a press release from the utility. “ES brings a […]

The Energy Department should prepare comprehensive assessments of Cold War nuclear sites now storing high-level radioactive waste to determine how much of it could safely be handled as low-level or transuranic waste, the Energy Communities Alliance said Monday. That is one of a set of recommendations in an ECA report, which aims to build on […]

By John Stang Officials from Nevada sent mixed signals this week to the U.S. Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee regarding upcoming legislation intended to kick-start the stalled nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain. On Tuesday, nine of Nevada’s 17 counties indicated support for the legislation in a letter to committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wy.), […]

A trio of U.S. senators on Tuesday took a third swing at legislation that would remove management of the federal nuclear waste program from the Department of Energy in hopes of finally driving it forward. The 2019 version of the Nuclear Waste Administration Act appears identical to the iterations of the bill introduced in 2013 […]