Interim Storage & Waste Disposal

The state of Nevada plans to submit 30 to 50 new contentions with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission against building a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, the state’s point man on the project said Wednesday. Should the NRC ultimately approve a license for construction of the underground storage site, state lawsuits would follow, Robert […]

Disposal of spent fuel is crucial to the domestic nuclear industry and will be among the Trump administration’s priorities when it comes to nuclear energy, acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Edward McGinnis said Tuesday. “The back end is a key pillar of our nuclear sector,” McGinnis said in the opening plenary to the […]

Waste Control Specialists has withdrawn a request for an exemption from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to store select radioactive waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The exemption became unnecessary after all shipments of transuranic waste to Waste Control Specialists’ storage complex in West Texas were halted when a container of material from the Energy […]

By Thomas Gardiner A settlement announced Monday could provide a path for more than 3.5 million pounds of nuclear waste from storage at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) along a California fault line to a more stable facility inland. The settlement agreement filed with the state Superior Court in San Diego brought potential […]

The state of Nevada objected to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s recently announced plan to this fall prepare to resume its review of the Energy Department’s application to license the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository in Nye County, Nev. The NRC on Aug. 8 said it would spend about $110,000 on “information-gathering activities” to gather input about […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in July spent just shy of $149,000 of its remaining balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund on activities related to licensing of the planned Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. Nearly all of the money — $143,744 – went toward knowledge management reports that provide technical data to assist in the review […]

Waste Control Specialists has withdrawn a request for an exemption from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to store select radioactive waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The exemption became unnecessary after all shipments of transuranic waste to Waste Control Specialists’ storage complex in West Texas were halted when a container of material from Los Alamos […]

Monday’s settlement to move nuclear waste away from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California put potential punctuation on a nearly two-year lawsuit, but one potential recipient is already refusing to accept the material. The agreement between SONGS owner Southern California Edison and Citizens Oversight cites the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station near […]

A settlement announced Monday could provide a path for spent nuclear fuel from storage at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) along a California fault line to a more stable facility inland. The settlement agreement filed with the State Superior Court in San Diego on Monday morning brings potential resolution to a lawsuit originally […]

The state of Nevada objected to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s recently announced plan to this fall prepare to resume its review of the Energy Department’s application to license the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository in Nye County, Nev. The NRC on Aug. 8 said it would spend about $110,000 on “information-gathering activities” to gather input about […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in July spent just shy of $149,000 of its remaining balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund on activities related to licensing of the planned Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. Nearly all of the money — $143,744 – went toward knowledge management reports that provide technical data to assist in the review […]

Where many leaders in Nevada see only risk when it comes to the long-planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, Nye County Board of Commissioners Chairman Dan Schinhofen sees opportunity. Nye County is the poorest county in Nevada, with a median income more than $10,000 less than the statewide median, according to reporting earlier this year. […]

By Wayne Barber Canadian Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna this week again requested more information from Ontario Power Generation on its proposed deep geologic repository for low-and-intermediate-level radioactive waste in Kincardine, Ontario. This comes almost two months after Canada’s Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) seemed ready to move ahead with a draft report that […]

Sen. Dean Heller’s (R-Nev.) primary challenger, the strongly pro-Trump campaign-trail veteran Danny Tarkanian, has yet to stake out an official position — in this U.S. Senate race, anyway — on disposing of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev. Tarkanian has given many interviews since declaring his latest run for office but has not […]

The Australian government today began the next phase of considering two sites in South Australia to house the planned National Radioactive Waste Management Facility. Two property owners close to the rural town of Kimba, on the Eyre Peninsula, in January separately proposed using their land for the facility. The National Radioactive Waste Management Facility Project […]

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) has drawn a primary challenge from the right in Danny Tarkanian: a man Heller, the Senate’s antagonist-in-chief for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in his state, quickly dismissed as a political failure. Tarkanian announced his candidacy Tuesday on Fox News. The Tarkanian camp did not reply to multiple requests […]

Although it has yet to officially rematerialize, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is preparing to review the Energy Department’s application to license the planned Yucca Mountain permanent nuclear-waste repository in Nevada. The regulator announced this week it will spend some $110,000 on “information-gathering activities,” to include a virtual meeting of the commission’s Licensing Support Network Advisory Review […]

The head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission tiptoed carefully around barbed inquiries from Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) about the Energy Department’s plan to license Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a permanent nuclear waste repository, according to recently released correspondence between the two. Heller has been prodding DOE and NRC officials about Yucca Mountain practically from […]

The ExchangeMonitor is following Congress into August recess, and RadWaste Monitor will not be published during the second and third weeks of the month. We’ll still be in the office, so keep the news tips coming, and look for the next weekly newsletter in your inbox on Friday, Aug. 25.

Holtec International must submit dozens of pieces of additional data before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can proceed with its initial review of the company’s license application for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel in southeastern New Mexico. To start, the Camden, N.J.-based energy services company must, per NRC rules, affirm under oath that all the […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has certified AREVA’s new dry storage system for used nuclear fuel, allowing the product to go onto the market, the company announced this week. The NUHOMS Extended Optimized Storage (EOS) system from AREVA subsidiary TN Americas can be used for transport and storage of high burn-up fuel from closed nuclear […]

Holtec International must submit dozens of pieces of additional data before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can proceed with its initial review of the company’s license application for interim storage of spent nuclear fuel in southeastern New Mexico. To start, the Camden, N.J., energy technology company must, per NRC rules, affirm under oath that all the information […]

The Vermont Public Service Board order that approved the certificate of public good for a second dry cask storage pad for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, as reported on July 21 by RadWaste Monitor, was issued in June 2016 rather than June 2017. The ExchangeMonitor regrets the error.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in June spent $17,699 of its remaining available Nuclear Waste Fund balance contesting a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas over the future of the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. In total, the regulator used $145,842 of its unexpended Nuclear Waste Fund money last month, according to the latest update […]

The House of Representatives has approved a fiscal 2018 Energy Department budget that would allow the agency to restart its application to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear-waste repository — something the Senate’s corresponding spending plan would prohibit. The House voted 235 to 192, on a highly partisan line, to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in June spent $17,699 of its remaining available Nuclear Waste Fund balance contesting a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas over the future of the Yucca Mountain storage facility. In total, the regulator used $145,842 of its unexpended Nuclear Waste Fund money last month, according to the latest update sent […]

Three U.S. representatives from Nevada on Monday filed an amendment that would strip funding for Yucca Mountain out of an Energy Department budget bill set for a floor vote in the House of Representatives this week. Rep. Ruben Kihuen (D), whose 4th District includes Yucca Mountain, filed the amendment along with Reps. Jacky Rosen (D) […]

By Wayne Barber The U.S. Court of Federal Claims continues to be an active venue for nuclear power companies to seek reimbursement from the U.S. government for the Energy Department’s ongoing breach of its legal obligation to take possession of spent nuclear fuel from commercial reactors. The Federal Circuit held in 2000 that the department […]

Sen. Dean Heller’s (R-Nev.) Las Vegas office was burglarized Sunday morning, the Las Vegas Sun newspaper reported. An aide to Heller confirmed the apparent break-in but declined to comment further about the ongoing investigation by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The Sun, citing a source, said the burglar or burglars might have left a […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of Wednesday had not received word on whether Waste Control Specialists intends to move ahead with its suspended application for a spent nuclear fuel storage site in the wake of the company’s foiled merger with rival EnergySolutions. “We have not heard of any change from WCS,” NRC spokesman David McIntyre […]