Interim Storage & Waste Disposal

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 bill along with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). […]

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 near Aiken, S.C., Scottish newspaper Sunday Post reported. The radioactive waste was loaded onto a U.S. Air Force cargo plane and took off from Scotland on Saturday, the paper said, adding […]

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) and Entergy are no fans of a bill again being proposed by a trio of Northeast lawmakers to speed up the transfer of nuclear spent fuel into dry cask storage. Senators Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (ID-Vermont), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) reintroduced the Dry Cask Storage Act legislation May 26. […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not resume consideration of the Energy Department’s application to license Yucca Mountain as a permanent nuclear waste repository, despite media reports to the contrary sparked by a routine notice published in the federal register this week. The notice that appeared Wednesday in the federal government’s official journal is essentially a […]

No: NRC Didn’t Resume Yucca Mountain License Hearings This Week The Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not resume consideration of the Energy Department’s application to license Yucca Mountain as a permanent nuclear waste repository, despite media reports to the contrary sparked by a routine notice published in the federal register this week. The notice that appeared […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not resumed consideration of the Energy Department’s application to license Yucca Mountain as a permanent nuclear waste repository, despite media reports to the contrary sparked by a routine notice published in the federal register Wednesday. The notice that appeared Wednesday in the federal government’s official journal is essentially a form […]

A trio of mostly Democratic senators reintroduced legislation that would require nuclear power plants to store spent nuclear fuel in dry casks rather than spent fuel pools. Sens. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) reintroduced the Dry Cask Storage Act Friday. The bill “would ensure that every nuclear reactor operator […]

GOP leaders of key energy panels in the House urged the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory commission to heed the recommendations in a Government Accountability Office report issued Friday to restart Yucca Mountain. The report, ordered in 2016 by Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and John Shimkus (R-Ill.), recommended that DOE and NRC move quickly […]

The Donald Trump administration requested $150 million for 2018 across the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to restart DOE’s application to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a nuclear waste repository. The $120 million of funding within DOE encompasses $110 million for Yucca licensing and $10 million for an interim storage […]

The Department of Energy this week officially canceled its oft-foiled plan to test deep boreholes for storage of nuclear waste, as the Trump administration further formalized its intention to put that waste in Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “Due to changes in budget priorities regarding nuclear waste policy, the Department of Energy does not intend to […]

A federal judge on May 19 authorized the state of Nevada and nuclear power industry representatives to intervene in Texas’ lawsuit demanding the federal government move ahead expeditiously with a permanent repository for the nation’s nuclear waste. Judge Patrick Higginbotham, of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, did not provide the reasoning for his separate […]

By Wayne Barber The Nuclear Regulatory Commission budget request for fiscal 2018 puts funding back into licensing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada even as it reflects overall belt tightening and a continuing reduction in employee headcount at the agency. The regulator is requesting $952 million for the budget year that starts Oct. […]

The Donald Trump administration requested $150 million for 2018 across the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to restart DOE’s application to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a nuclear waste repository. The $120 million of funding within DOE encompasses $110 million for Yucca licensing and $10 million for an interim storage […]

Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), the House of Representatives’ de-facto dean of Yucca Mountain, cheered the White House’s plan to resume work on that planned nuclear waste repository Wednesday, while another congressional Dean, one Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), slammed the proposal as anti-Nevada. The Trump administration’s proposal to spend $120 million on Yucca Mountain and interim […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission budget request for fiscal 2018 puts funding back into licensing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada even as it reflects overall belt tightening and a continuing reduction in employee headcount. The regulator is requesting $952 million for the budget year that starts Oct. 1, including 3,284 full-time equivalent employees. […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday it has canceled a planned test of the use of deep boreholes for storage of U.S. nuclear waste. “Due to changes in budget priorities regarding nuclear waste policy, the Department of Energy does not intend to continue supporting the Deep Borehole Field Test (DBFT) project,” DOE spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes […]

The Donald Trump administration requested $120 million for fiscal 2018 to resume the Energy Department’s application to license Yucca Mountain as a nuclear repository, while also asking for $10 million to begin work on an interim waste-storage program. The request, $120 million in total, would be funded within DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy. “This request […]

A federal judge on Friday authorized the state of Nevada and nuclear power industry representatives to intervene in Texas’ lawsuit demanding the federal government move ahead with a permanent repository for the nation’s nuclear waste. Judge Patrick Higginbotham, of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, did not provide the reasoning for his separate rulings in […]

As the United States wrestles with management of spent fuel from the nation’s nuclear reactors, Ukraine expects to consolidate its material two years from now, Holtec International announced last week. Ukraine’s consolidated interim storage facility is due to open in 2019 in the Exclusion Zone around the Chernobyl nuclear plant. It would hold spent fuel from […]

By Wayne Barber While he realizes the odds are slim, a state senator from rural Nevada would like to see policymakers seriously consider building an interim nuclear waste storage facility at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), which was long used for nuclear weapons testing. The prevailing political mindset on high-level nuclear waste in Nevada […]

The Nevada Senate this week approved a joint resolution that would make official the state Legislature’s opposition to the Energy Department’s proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository. The measure, Assembly Joint Resolution 10, passed 19-2. The Nevada General Assembly approved the measure by a 32-6 vote in in March, with four lawmakers absent. The resolution now […]

The Nevada Senate this week approved a joint resolution that would make official the state Legislature’s opposition to the Energy Department’s proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository. The measure, Assembly Joint Resolution 10, passed 19-2. The Nevada General Assembly approved the measure by a 32-6 vote in in March, with four lawmakers absent. The resolution now […]

The parent company of Waste Control Specialists (WCS) on Tuesday suggested deep doubts about the likelihood of securing a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to build and operate an interim spent fuel storage facility for spent reactor fuel. The statement from holding company Valhi Inc. comes as its subsidiary is said to be wrestling with ongoing […]

Two Nevada legislative panels on Saturday approved more than $7 million from 2017 to 2019 for the state to fight President Donald Trump’s plan to open the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nye County, Nev. In a joint session that was webcast, the state’s Senate Finance Committee and Assembly Ways and Means Committee approved […]

The possibility that U.S. nuclear waste could be used in a radiological “dirty bomb” if not interred at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is not a compelling argument in favor of the always controversial project, experts said after a lawmaker from Texas cited the threat. Republican Rep. Pete Olson late last month at a House Energy […]

Two Nevada legislative panels on Saturday approved more than $7 million from 2017 to 2019 for the state to fight President Donald Trump’s plan to open the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nye County, Nev. In a joint session that was webcast, the state’s Senate Finance Committee and Assembly Ways and Means Committee approved […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that further action is not immediately necessary to ensure safe operations of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. The finding follows a supplemental inspection that ended this year following three NRC site visits to the nuclear plant. “The NRC determined that programs and processes at PNPS adequately support […]

The possibility that U.S. nuclear waste could be used in a radiological “dirty bomb” if not interred at Yucca Mountain in Nevada is not a compelling argument in favor of the always controversial project, experts said after a lawmaker from Texas cited the threat. Republican Rep. Pete Olson late last month at a House Energy […]

The parent company of Waste Control Specialists (WCS) on Tuesday suggested deep doubts about the likelihood of securing a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to build and operate an interim storage facility for spent reactor fuel. Dallas-based WCS in April asked the federal agency to temporarily suspend review of the application for a facility designed to […]

The bench trial over EnergySolutions’ planned $367 million acquisition of waste management rival Waste Control Specialists ended Friday in U.S. District Court in Delaware. Senior Judge Sue Robinson indicated she intends to rule on the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against the merger ahead of her retirement next month, Law 360 reported. The DOJ’s closing […]