Interim Storage & Waste Disposal

The Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects would get a small raise in the next two budget years to sustain the fight against federal plans to build a nuclear weapons repository in the state, under the new biennial budget from Gov. Steve Sisolak (D). The agency is funded at just over $1.8 million in the state’s […]

Pacific Gas & Electric plans to issue a request for proposals around September for the expedited transfer and storage of spent nuclear fuel at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant near San Luis Obispo, Calif. Representatives from the utility briefed the Diablo Canyon Decommissioning Engagement Panel on the plan Wednesday. The utility expects to close […]

An article in the March 8 edition of RadWaste Monitor cited an incorrect figure for the estimated cost of a proposed deep geologic repository for low- and intermediate-level waste in Ontario, Canada. Ontario Power Generation’s projected life-cycle cost for the facility is $2.4 billion (CAN).

A case could be made for arranging the transport and temporary storage of U.S. commercial spent nuclear reactor fuel without involving the Department of Energy, according to a senior representative for the nuclear industry trade group. However, key stakeholders aren’t tipping their hands yet regarding their positions on such an approach to resolving the decades-old […]

The Trump administration this week again proposed to fund resumption of licensing for the long-planned, long-delayed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The state’s congressional delegation immediately pushed back against the latest White House budget plan, reminding President Donald Trump that he suggested last fall he would oppose the disposal facility. The Department of […]

The Trump administration is again proposing to fund resumption of licensing for the long-planned, long-delayed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, respectively the applicant and adjudicator for the license, together requested just over $154 million for the 2020 federal fiscal year. That is down by more […]

The members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday affirmed an adjudicatory body’s decision not to recuse itself from ruling on petitions for intervention in the licensing proceeding for a planned spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Texas. In their memorandum, the five commissioners said they concurred with the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Canadian utility Ontario Power Generation (OPG) hopes the government will in 2021 approve construction of a deep geologic repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste from three nuclear power plants in the province. Approval for the controversial project would first be predicated on support from the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON), on whose […]

Lawmakers from Nevada this week reintroduced two pieces of legislation intended to make it much more difficult, if not outright impossible, for the federal government to build a nuclear waste repository in their state. The bills dropped just days before the White House is due to roll out its budget request for fiscal 2020. Issue […]

The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) has requested cooperating agency status in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s review of the license application for a spent nuclear fuel storage facility planned for the state. Then-NMED Secretary-designate James Kenney made the request in a Feb. 14 letter to the NRC, which was posted Tuesday to the federal […]

Members of Nevada’s delegation to Congress on Tuesday reintroduced legislation that would require the Department of Energy to obtain consent from state, local, and tribal governments before building a nuclear waste repository in a given state. The lawmakers left no doubt that their primary intent is to prevent DOE from building the repository at Yucca […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission had a $408,479 unspent, unobligated balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund at the end of January, according to the agency’s latest monthly update to Congress. The NRC spent $4,073 in January: $2,444 for unspecified program planning and support and the remaining $1,629 on federal litigation. Established by Congress in 1982, […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Canadian utility Ontario Power Generation hopes the government will in 2021 approve its plans for a deep geologic repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste from three nuclear power plants in the province. Approval from the Canadian minister of environment and climate change, though, would first be predicated on support for the […]

WASHINGTON — A former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman and other issue experts made the rounds on Capitol Hill this week to argue for a top-to-bottom rethinking of management of the nation’s nuclear waste. “The situation in the U.S. is terribly broken, has been for decades, and without some major change to the program I don’t […]

Nevada’s congressional delegation is refreshing its opposition to building a nuclear waste repository in their state ahead of the imminent rollout of the White House’s next budget proposal. The Trump administration is expected to issue its fiscal 2020 spending plan on or around March 12, delayed several weeks by the recent partial shutdown of the […]

A planned trip this week by several U.S. senators to the proposed site of a nuclear waste repository in Nevada has been canceled, Sen. Lamar Alexander’s (R-Tenn.) office said Wednesday. “The CODEL is being rescheduled,” a spokesperson for Alexander said by email, referring to the congressional delegation. The problem appeared to be scheduling conflicts with […]

A former Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman and other issue experts are making the rounds on Capitol Hill this week to argue for a top-to-bottom rethinking of management of the nation’s nuclear waste. “The situation in the U.S. is terribly broken, has been for decades, and without some major change to the program I don’t really […]

An Atomic Safety and Licensing Board at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has pushed back an earlier schedule for ruling on requests to intervene in licensing of a planned spent nuclear fuel storage facility in New Mexico. The three-person panel last month indicated it would issue its decision in March. But that was before oral […]

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the U.S. government to pay more than $103 million to the owners of three retired nuclear power plants for failing to meet its legal mandate to remove spent nuclear fuel from the properties. U.S. Court of Federal Claims Senior Judge Nancy Firestone ruled that the federal government must pay […]

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) this week will lead a handful of his colleagues on a visit to the site of the planned nuclear waste repository below Yucca Mountain, Nev. “Senator Alexander is leading a bipartisan delegation of Senators to Yucca Mountain in Nevada as part of his ongoing effort to help solve the nuclear waste […]

The looming potential for the United Kingdom’s “hard exit” from the European Union could impact procedures for shipping radioactive waste and spent reactor fuel to and from the nation, the U.K. Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said this week. Following a 2016 referendum, the U.K. is due to leave the EU on […]

Idaho’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on Feb. 15 expressed no misgivings about a preliminary federal finding that there would be no major impact in renewing the license for continued in-state storage of waste from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The state agency, though, reminded the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that […]

The looming potential for the United Kingdom’s “hard exit” from the European Union could impact procedures for shipping nuclear waste and spent reactor fuel to and from the nation, the U.K. Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said this week. The U.K. is due to leave the EU on March 29, but the […]

Idaho’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on Friday expressed no misgivings about a preliminary federal finding that there would be no major impact in renewing the license for continued in-state storage of waste from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The state agency, though, reminded the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the […]

The trade group for the U.S. casino industry this month, in a letter to Congress, reaffirmed its opposition to development of a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev. Addressing all members of the 116th Congress, the American Gaming Association noted that the long-planned underground repository would be built 90 miles from the nation’s mecca […]

The New Hampshire legislature is considering a bill intended to shut the door on disposal of nuclear waste in the state even while establishing three bodies to address the issue. House Bill 704 would formalize the legislature’s opposition to building a facility for high-level radioactive waste in New Hampshire “and finds that the north-east is […]

The trade group for the U.S. casino industry this month, in a letter to Congress, reaffirmed its opposition to development of a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev. Addressing all members of the 116th Congress, the American Gaming Association noted that the long-planned underground disposal facility would be built 90 miles from the nation’s […]

The New Hampshire legislature is considering a bill intended to shut the door on disposal of nuclear waste in the state even while establishing three bodies to address the issue. House Bill 704 would formalize the legislature’s opposition to building a facility for high-level radioactive waste in New Hampshire “and finds that the north-east is […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December spent $1,566 of its remaining balance from the fund intended to pay the agency’s licensing activities for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. That left the industry regulator with an unobligated, unexpended balance of $412,552, according to its latest report to Congress, posted this week on […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December spent $1,566 of its remaining balance from the fund intended to pay the agency’s licensing activities for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. That left the industry regulator with an unobligated, unexpended balance of $412,552, according to its latest report to Congress, posted this week on […]