Interim Storage & Waste Disposal

As of this month, 1,000 dry storage casks built by Holtec International have been filled with spent nuclear reactor fuel. The New Jersey-based nuclear waste management provider said Thursday it reached the milestone in the prior week when Exelon’s  LaSalle County Nuclear Generating Station in Illinois filled a third cask in an ongoing program to […]

Voters in the South Australian town of Kimba indicated they want their community to remain in consideration to host a storage facility for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste. In a postal vote officially concluded last Wednesday, 698 residents and landholders answered this question: “Do you support a nomination for a site being progressed to Phase […]

Valhi Inc. late Friday said it was walking away from the $367 million sale of its Waste Control Specialists subsidiary to EnergySolutions. The announcement came two days after a federal judge blocked the merger following a 10-day antitrust trial in April to May in which the Department of Justice argued that combining the two primary providers […]

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the planned $367 million buyout of Waste Control Specialists by radioactive waste management rival EnergySolutions, raising new questions about the financially troubled company’s plans for interim storage of U.S. commercial nuclear reactor fuel and its future in total. The merger announced in November 2015 would have brought WCS’ waste […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry raised eyebrows this week by listing facilities in Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas as possible interim storage sites for U.S. nuclear waste, then a day later clarified that his agency has made no decisions on any potential locations. In successive budget hearings before House and Senate Appropriations committees, though, Perry left no […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry raised eyebrows this week by listing facilities in Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas as possible interim storage sites for U.S. nuclear waste, then a day later clarified that his agency has made no decisions on any potential locations. In successive budget hearings before House and Senate Appropriations committees, though, Perry left no […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry suggested Wednesday that material processed through the Energy Department’s suggested dilute and dispose method for eliminating 34 metric tons of excess weapon-usable plutonium could potentially be stored somewhere other than the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico. The administration is pushing for termination of the Mixed Oxide Fuel […]

The Department of Energy has not made any decisions regarding possible locations for interim storage of U.S. nuclear waste, DOE Secretary Rick Perry said Wednesday, one day after raising eyebrows by suggesting sites in Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas could become future homes to such facilities. “I want to be crystal clear with this committee and […]

A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the planned $367 million buyout of Waste Control Specialists by radioactive waste management rival EnergySolutions. The merger announced in November 2015 would have brought WCS’ waste storage complex in West Texas into EnergySolutions’ broader portfolio of nuclear service offerings. But, in an antitrust lawsuit filed last November, the Justice Department […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Tuesday suggested the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico and the Nevada National Security Site could be used for interim storage for nuclear waste. That would run up against existing law in the first instance and already faces vehement opposition in the second. In his first hearing on Capitol […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 9 said it has begun the technical review of the Energy Department’s request for a 20-year license extension for storage in Idaho of debris from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The Energy Department submitted the request by letter on March 6, after which the NRC carried out an acceptance review […]

By Wayne Barber Duke Energy expects to finish building a dry cask storage facility at the retired Crystal River 3 nuclear plant in Florida sometime this year, and all used nuclear fuel assemblies will be transferred from the fuel pool into dry casks by February 2018, a utility spokesperson said this week. Crews will begin […]

Disputes over several pieces of language did not stop the House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee on Thursday from sending legislation to advance interim and permanent storage of U.S. nuclear waste to the full panel for consideration. Democrats offered three amendments to the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 during a markup session, but […]

Disputes over several pieces of language did not stop the House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee on Thursday from sending legislation to advance interim and permanent storage of U.S. nuclear waste to the full panel for consideration. Democrats offered three amendments to the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 during a markup session, but […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on June 9 said it has begun the technical review of the Energy Department’s request for a 20-year license extension for storage in Idaho of debris from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The Energy Department submitted the request by letter on March 6, after which the NRC carried out an acceptance review […]

Duke Energy expects to finish building a dry cask storage facility at the retired Crystal River 3 nuclear plant in Florida sometime this year, and all used nuclear fuel assemblies will be transferred from the fuel pool into dry casks by February 2018, a utility spokesperson said this week. Crews will begin moving used nuclear […]

The House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee is scheduled today to mark up legislation intended to advance development of interim and permanent storage of U.S. nuclear waste, with an eye toward Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017, as the title indicates, would make dozens of changes […]

The state of Nevada this week urged the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss Texas’ lawsuit demanding that the federal government move ahead with the licensing and development of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Judge Patrick Higginbotham in May authorized Nevada to intervene in the lawsuit filed in March against the U.S. […]

The U.S. senators from Nevada on Tuesday urged the Trump administration’s nominees for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to be fair in their consideration of licensing for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. “We recognize that the nominees considered before the Committee today have a history and record of strongly supporting moving forward with the Yucca […]

The Department of Energy has largely blanked out the section of its website that addresses consent-based siting of nuclear waste. The web page on the program now says only, “Thank you for your interest in this topic. We are currently updating our website to reflect the Department’s priorities under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday said it has begun the technical review of the Energy Department’s request for a 20-year extension of storage in Idaho of debris from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. DOE submitted the request by letter on March 6, after which the NRC carried out an acceptance review of the […]

A local advisory committee on Tuesday urged the Energy Department not to accept shipments of spent nuclear fuel from Germany at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The recommendation was one of three approved during the meeting of the SRS Citizens Advisory Board’s (CAB) Nuclear Materials Committee. The three recommendations all complement positions widely […]

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators plans to reintroduce a bill that, in its most recent form, would have created a new federal agency dedicated to dealing with nuclear waste, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said during a Wednesday hearing here on Capitol Hill. Alexander would sponsor the legislation along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). The […]

A shipment of radioactive waste from a nuclear cleanup site in Scotland was sent over the weekend to the U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, on its way to Tennessee, the Scottish Sunday Post newspaper reported. The radioactive waste was loaded onto a U.S. Air Force cargo plane and took off from Scotland on […]

WASHINGTON — The federal government should prioritize interim storage of spent nuclear fuel at privately licensed sites instead of fast-tracking a permanent disposal site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the head of the Senate panel in charge of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s budget said in a hearing Wednesday. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate […]

A bipartisan group of 32 members of the House of Representatives this week asked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for an assist in the fight against a planned nuclear waste disposal site near Lake Huron in Canada. The letter to the Trump administration’s top diplomat was spurred by new reporting from Canadian utility Ontario Power […]

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators plans to reintroduce a bill that, in its most recent form, would have created a new federal agency dedicated to dealing with nuclear waste, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said during a Wednesday hearing here on Capitol Hill. Alexander would sponsor the legislation along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). The […]

A local advisory committee on Tuesday urged the Energy Department not to accept shipments of spent nuclear fuel from Germany at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The recommendation was one of three approved during the meeting of the SRS Citizens Advisory Board’s (CAB) Nuclear Materials Committee. The three recommendations all complement positions widely […]

A shipment of radioactive waste from a nuclear cleanup site in Scotland was sent over the weekend to the U.S. Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina, on its way to Tennessee, the Scottish Sunday Post newspaper has reported. The radioactive waste was loaded onto a U.S. Air Force cargo plane and took off from Scotland […]

WASHINGTON — The federal government should prioritize interim storage of spent nuclear fuel at privately licensed sites instead of fast-tracking a permanent disposal site at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, the head of the Senate panel in charge of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s budget said in a hearing Wednesday. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), chairman of the Senate […]