Interim Storage & Waste Disposal

Former Waste Control Specialists President and CEO Rod Baltzer has opened a new consulting firm, and is not straying far from his specialty in low-level radioactive waste disposal. “I haven’t Tweeted in a while, but wanted you to know I have started a consulting firm since leaving WCS,” Baltzer said in a March 2 message […]

U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) on Monday said he believes 300 members of the House of Representatives would line up behind his bill on advancing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository if it could get a floor vote. In an evening speech on the House floor, Shimkus noted that H.R. 3053, the Nuclear Waste Policy […]

The House’s top energy appropriator appeared to quash any hope that a fiscal 2018 budget being put together in advance of a March 23 federal-funding deadline would contain any money for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository in Nevada. In the face of that ominous prediction, Yucca booster-in-chief Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) told news outlets […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission should extend its public scoping comment period on a proposed spent reactor fuel storage facility in New Mexico to allow the state’s Legislature and public agencies to review and comment on the project, New Mexico lawmakers said recently. In a series of identical Feb. 27 letters, the NRC told the […]

Only one of 13 states surveyed recently showed any interest in becoming home to an interim or long-term repository for spent fuel from U.S. commercial nuclear power reactors. The Natural Resources Defense Council sent a survey on nuclear waste issues to government officials in all 48 states in the continental U.S. Thirteen states responded in […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has less than $500,000 left in its available balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund, which pays for the agency’s work on the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. In its latest update to Congress on activities related to licensing of Yucca Mountain, the NRC said its unobligated Nuclear […]

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) on Monday evening led a group of lawmakers to the floor of the House of Representatives to call for action to address the decades-old impasse in finding a permanent home for the nation’s nuclear waste. Standing before a sign with the title of legislation Shimkus filed last year to advance the […]

Former Waste Control Specialists President and CEO Rod Baltzer said Friday he has opened a new consulting firm, and is not straying far from his specialty in low-level radioactive waste disposal. “I haven’t Tweeted in a while, but wanted you to know I have started a consulting firm since leaving WCS,” Baltzer said in a […]

A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission advisory panel on Wednesday suggested which options it opposes for re-establishing a massive database of documents on licensing the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, but ended a two-day meeting without recommending a clear path forward. Members of the Licensing Support Network Advisory Review Panel (LSNARP) now have […]

A hearing has been set for April 5 on motions to dismiss a California watchdog group’s lawsuit against storage of spent reactor fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). Public Watchdogs has no standing to sue in the matter, among several breakdowns in its case, SONGS primary owners Southern California Edison (SCE) and […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday said it would conduct a full technical review of Holtec International’s application for a license to build and operate an interim spent-fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. The Camden, N.J.-based energy technology company filed its application on March 30, 2017, for authorization to store as much as […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday said it would conduct a full technical review of Holtec International’s application for a license to build an interim spent-fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. The Camden, N.J.-based energy technology company filed its application on March 30, 2017, for authorization to store as much as 8,680 metric […]

A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission advisory panel on Wednesday suggested which options it opposes for re-establishing a massive database of documents on licensing the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, but ended a two-day meeting without recommending a clear path forward. The Licensing Support Network (LSN) was shut down in 2011, and nearly […]

Members of an advisory panel to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission today will have an opportunity to offer their opinion on the future of a retired database for nearly 3.7 million documents on the agency’s review of the Energy Department license application for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The Licensing Support Network […]

A hearing has been set for April 5 on a motion to dismiss a California watchdog group’s lawsuit against storage of spent reactor fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). Public Watchdogs has no standing to sue in the matter, among several breakdowns in its case, SONGS primary owners Southern California Edison (SCE) […]

There is no need to rebuild the database of documents for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s review of the license application for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, according to the lobbying body for the nuclear industry. The Nuclear Energy Institute earlier this month threw its weight behind keeping the Licensing Support […]

Orano TN, the nuclear logistics subsidiary of the company formerly known as AREVA, said Wednesday it had secured a contract worth tens of millions of dollars for used nuclear fuel dry storage operations with a U.S. utility. An Orano press release did not identify the customer, which a company spokesman said requested confidentiality. The company […]

By John Stang A California watchdog organization has petitioned the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to significantly increase the required longevity of the dry casks used for storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel at power plants around the country. On Jan. 2, Citizens’ Oversight submitted the petition for rulemaking that argued the 40-year design life required […]

Orano TN, the nuclear logistics subsidiary of the company formerly known as AREVA, said Wednesday it had secured a contract worth tens of millions of dollars for used nuclear fuel dry storage operations with a U.S. utility. An Orano press release did not identify the customer, which requested confidentiality. The company also did not release […]

There is no need to rebuild the database of documents for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s review of the license application for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, according to the lobbying body for the nuclear industry. The Nuclear Energy Institute earlier this month threw its weight behind keeping the Licensing Support […]

By John Stang The retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California recently transferred the first two used fuel canisters to its new dry storage site. Right now, roughly a third of SONGS’ 3.55 million pounds of spent reactor fuel is already held in 51 canisters in the original independent spent fuel storage installation. […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) needs more funding in fiscal 2019 for licensing Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a nuclear waste repository, mostly to put more full-time people on the project, the independent nuclear-waste regulator said in its budget request this week. In a roughly $970-million request for the budget year starting Oct. 1, the […]

The law firm Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch & Lawrence will continue to help Nevada oppose the Department of Energy’s plans to open a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in the state, under a two-year contract worth roughly $5 million. The state Board of Examiners approved the new contract on Tuesday. Nevada has retained the firm […]

Nuclear services provider NuVision Engineering has promoted three of its managers into top leadership positions, including chief executive officer and chief operating officer. The moves follow NuVision’s acquisition by Carr’s Engineering last August, according to the company’s Feb. 9 announcement. Brian Scott Beley is now president and CEO at the Pittsburgh company. He has been […]

The Donald Trump administration on Monday stuck to its guns about turning Nevada’s Yucca Mountain into a permanent nuclear waste repository, requested almost $170 million in fiscal 2019 for the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to work on the licensing the facility. The total 2019 request is just over 10 percent higher […]

Appropriators in the House of Representatives are to blame for the failure to schedule a floor vote on legislation aimed at pushing forward development of the long-delayed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said Tuesday. Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 passed out of the […]

Parties to the state regulatory review for the planned sale of the retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant on Friday reported “substantial progress” in resolving two key points of dispute in the deal. That could open the door for the Vermont Public Utility Commission to reschedule hearings postponed from last month and continue its decision-making process. […]

The Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission will remain frozen at fiscal 2017 spending levels through at least late March, under the stopgap spending bill passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump on Friday morning after an overnight government shutdown — the second of fiscal 2018. The bill is the fifth continuing resolution of […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff last week formally signed off on exemptions in operation of a spent fuel storage facility for the retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The Feb. 2 safety evaluation report follows a Jan. 11 environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact by agency staff for those same exemptions requested by plant owner Entergy. […]

Appropriators in the House of Representatives are to blame for the inability to schedule a floor vote on legislation aimed at pushing forward development of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) said Tuesday. Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 passed out of the House […]