Interim Storage & Waste Disposal

The Energy Department would get no money to turn Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., into a permanent nuclear-waste disposal site under a roughly $30-billion agency budget the Senate Appropriations Committee approved Thursday. The committee signaled its intention in draft legislation that leaked earlier in the week before appropriators released the language of their bill and […]

The Energy Department would get no money to turn Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., into a permanent nuclear-waste disposal site under a roughly $30-billion agency budget the Senate Appropriations Committee approved Thursday. The committee signaled its intention in draft legislation that leaked earlier in the week before appropriators released the language of their bill and […]

Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) issued a fist-pumping press release lauding the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee for not funding the Energy Department’s application to license Yucca Mountain as a permanent nuclear-waste repository in 2018. The bill, which has yet to be released publicly, “does not include the $120 million requested by the Department […]

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 […]

A Senate Appropriations panel advanced a fiscal 2018 spending bill that would focus DOE’s near-term nuclear-waste management efforts on consent-based interim storage and cancel the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility under construction in South Carolina. The $38.4-billion bill from the Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee would also provide a smaller-than-requested funding increase for DOE’s […]

The Energy Department would be permitted to construct one or more interim storage sites for nuclear waste, under a 2018 budget recommendation Senate appropriators are expected to release today. That is according to the bill report for the Senate Appropriations energy and water subcommittee’s 2018 energy and water development appropriations act. Weapons Complex Morning Briefing […]

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 threatening note […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is conducting an environmental assessment as part of its review of the Energy Department’s application for a 20-year extension of its license for storage in Idaho of waste from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. “The purpose of the EA is to assess potential environmental impacts that may significantly affect the […]

The European Commission last week gave five nations two months to provide overdue information regarding their domestic programs for management of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste. Should they fail to meet their commitment, Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Portugal could be directed to the European Union Court of Justice, the commission said […]

Lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee this week approved a fiscal 2018 energy budget that “fully supports” the Department of Energy’s plan to create a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada — though in a slightly different way than the White House imagined. “The Committee fully supports the Administration’s position to move […]

Lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee this week approved a fiscal 2018 energy budget that “fully supports” the Department of Energy’s plan to create a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada — though in a slightly different way than the White House imagined. “The Committee fully supports the Administration’s position to move forward […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would provide $150 million to the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission for licensing of the Yucca Mountain repository for nuclear waste in Nevada. The funding in the $37.6 billion energy and water appropriations bill is in line with the Trump administration’s intention to resume […]

A federal judge has set a Friday deadline for parties to file an agreed-upon redacted version of the opinion for her ruling blocking the merger of nuclear waste management providers Waste Control Specialists and EnergySolutions. Judge Sue Robinson, of U.S. District Court for Delaware, on June 21 found in favor of the Justice Department in […]

Adams Natural Resources Consulting Services of Carson City, Nev., will aid Nevada’s legal efforts to oppose the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository for another year, under a contract modification approved Wednesday. Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt, Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) and Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske approved the extension during a state Board of […]

The state of Texas’ lawsuit demanding that the U.S. government end the years-old impasse on permanent storage of the nation’s nuclear waste has already been overtaken by events under the Trump administration, federal attorneys argued in new filings. For that and other reasons, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals should reject the state’s lawsuit, according […]

By Wayne Barber In keeping with a 2013 federal court order, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has now spent most of its unobligated Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF) money on efforts related to licensing the Energy Department’s planned geologic repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The NRC recently reported to Congress that of the […]

Adams Natural Resources Consulting Services of Carson City, Nev., will aid Nevada’s legal efforts to oppose the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository for another year, under a contract modification approved Wednesday. Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt, Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) and Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske approved the extension during a state Board of […]

In keeping with a 2013 federal court order, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has now spent most of its unobligated Nuclear Waste Fund (NWF) money on efforts related to licensing the Energy Department’s planned geologic repository for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The NRC recently reported to Congress that of the roughly $13.55 million […]

The state of Texas’ lawsuit demanding that the U.S. government take significant steps toward permanent storage of the nation’s nuclear waste has already been overtaken by events under the Trump administration, federal attorneys argued last week. For that and other reasons, the state’s lawsuit should be denied, according to separate motions for the Nuclear Regulatory […]

Policy-makers across the political spectrum must shoulder the blame for failure to establish a permanent solution to the United States’ nuclear waste quandary, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Tuesday. “This is a failing of both Republicans, Democrats, Independents, all lumped together, that nuclear waste has set idle in 120 sites in 39 states for decades, […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would allow the Energy Department to contract for interim storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel even as it waits on a ruling on a permanent repository. The amended version of the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 reverses language in the draft […]

There were strong objections on both sides of the border this week to a planned nuclear waste repository near Lake Huron in Canada, even as the facility took another step toward possible regulatory approval. Canada’s Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) said Tuesday it has accepted as complete the latest data tranche from provincial utility Ontario Power Generation […]

By Wayne Barber The opinion detailing the reasoning for a federal judge’s June 21 ruling blocking the $367 million merger of Waste Control Specialists and EnergySolutions had not been made public by Friday, a week after the companies walked away from the deal. The office of Judge Sue L. Robinson, of U.S. District Court for […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would get about $950 million in fiscal 2018 under one congressional spending plan: a roughly 5-percent year-over-year budget cut that still provides $30 million to review the Energy Department’s revived application to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear waste repository. The proposed budget is part of a nearly […]

Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and other Midwest lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee used a Wednesday markup for legislation on U.S. nuclear waste storage to argue against Canada storing its own waste near Lake Huron. Ontario Power Generation is waiting on approval from the Canadian government to build a repository 680 meters below […]

The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would allow the Energy Department to contract for interim storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel even as it waits on a ruling on a permanent repository. The amended version of the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 reverses language in the draft […]

Government officials across the political spectrum must shoulder the blame for failure to establish a permanent solution to the United States’ nuclear waste quandary, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Tuesday. “This is a failing of both Republicans, Democrats, Independents, all lumped together, that nuclear waste has set idle in 120 sites in 39 states for […]

Nuclear weapons programs would get the big boost the Donald Trump administration sought in 2018 and Cold War nuclear cleanup programs would get a little less than requested, if a draft spending bill released Tuesday by House appropriators becomes law. The bill, essentially a first draft that will undergo many changes before it reaches the […]

Canada’s Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA) said Tuesday it has accepted as complete the latest data tranche from a utility regarding a planned geologic repository for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste from three nuclear power plants. The agency requested the information on April 5, and Ontario Power Generation responded with a 144-page document on May 26. Upon […]

Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) said Friday it has removed two jurisdictions from the list of communities being considered to house a deep geologic repository for the nation’s spent reactor fuel. The Ontario communities of White River Township and the municipality of Central Huron are out, according to an NWMO press release. They join […]