Interim Storage & Waste Disposal

Waste Control Specialists has not provided sufficient information to enable the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to carry out a technical review of its license application to build an interim consolidated storage facility for spent nuclear fuel and reactor-related greater-than-Class C low-level waste, according to a senior NRC official. That was the finding of an acceptance assessment of […]

There was no indication this week that critics would file appeals against the state’s certificate of public good for a second spent fuel storage pad at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station. The nongovernmental New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution and the Windham Regional Commission had been seen as the only likely protesters. But representatives from […]

Waste Control Specialists said this week the legacy nuclear waste it is baby-sitting for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory — including some from the problematic batch that leaked radiation into the underground Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) — should remain in Texas for two years longer than the company’s current license allows. […]

Power provider Entergy made a major stride toward building a second independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station on June 17, after winning a certificate of public good from the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB). The board’s approval allows a 10-day window for stakeholders to file an appeal. Entergy […]

The Department of Energy is several years away from initiating a siting process for a defense-only repository, or disposal facility, for high-level nuclear waste, acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy John Kotek said Monday. Kotek, who is leading the department’s consent-based siting effort for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, appeared before the Nuclear […]

An article in the June 17 edition of RadWaste Monitor mischaracterized ownership of Areva SA and Areva New Co. The French state controls about 87 percent of Areva SA and is expected to control up to 67 percent of New Co. The article also wrongly attributed to Areva a cost overrun estimate for the construction […]

Lithuania has successfully completed cold trials at its new interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility for power units 1 and 2 at the shuttered Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant, State Enterprise Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant announced Monday. Completion of cold testing clears the way for IAE to conduct hot trials at the facility, using spent nuclear fuel, […]

The Department of Energy is a few years away from initiating a siting process for a defense-only repository, or disposal facility, for high-level nuclear waste, acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy John Kotek said Monday. Kotek, who is leading the department’s consent-based siting effort for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, appeared before […]

Power provider Entergy made a major stride toward building a second independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station on Friday, after winning a certificate of public good from the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB). The board’s approval allows a 10-day window for stakeholders to file an appeal. Entergy plans […]

An environmental group is asking the Vermont Public Service Board (PSB) to reconsider its denial of new evidence in reviewing Entergy’s plans to build an independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) at the closed Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. Entergy plans to transfer nearly 3,000 spent fuel assemblies into 45 dry casks by the end of 2020, […]

The Department of Energy has failed to secure another location for its proposed deep borehole field test, this time in South Dakota, where the Spink County Commission on June 10 sent a letter to lead contractor Battelle Memorial Institute opposing the $35 million nuclear waste storage experiment. This comes after the Pierce County Commission in March similarly thwarted […]

The Department of Energy’s proposed deep borehole field test has hit a second major stumbling block, this time in South Dakota, where the Spink County Commission on Friday sent a letter to lead contractor Battelle Memorial Institute opposing the $35 million nuclear waste storage experiment. This comes after the Pierce County Commission in March similarly thwarted […]

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) doesn’t anticipate a resurrection of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada after he leaves office in January, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I can’t imagine Yucca Mountain’s going to come back,” Reid said Tuesday during a meeting with the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce […]

Australia’s Greens political party wants to cancel resources minister Josh Frydenberg’s plan that has identified farmland in South Australia as the location for the country’s first permanent storage site for low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste, and instead maintain storage operations just outside of Sydney, allowing for an independent investigation into storage options. The Greens’ nuclear […]

Attorneys general in four northeastern states are weighing options after a defeat in federal court last week, in which the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied their request to vacate a Nuclear Regulatory Commission rule allowing indefinite storage of nuclear waste at American power plants. The court on June 3 rejected a petition from Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, […]

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Units 1-3 are now completely free of spent nuclear fuel, State Specialized Enterprise ChNPP announced Monday after unloading the Central Hall 1 cooling pool and moving the spent fuel into wet storage. Chernobyl, which experienced a catastrophic power surge in 1986, resulting in what is considered the worst nuclear accident on record, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is justified in allowing indefinite storage of nuclear waste at American power plants, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decision denies a request from four states – New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut – asking that NRC vacate its continued storage rule. Formerly known as […]

Southern California residents are demanding that the federal government expeditiously remove about 1,600 tons of nuclear waste from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Diego County. The recently formed Secure Nuclear Waste group, which includes residents from San Diego and Orange counties, is holding a public meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Laguna […]

MANCHESTER, England — While Germany is looking at extending interim storage of national nuclear waste by as much as 80 years, allowing interim to become permanent storage is not an option. That’s according to German engineer Holger Volzke, who spoke here Wednesday at the conclusion of the 2016 Nuclear Decommissioning Conference Europe. Volzke is a division […]

MANCHESTER, England — Transparency will be the focus as the U.K. government tries to avoid failing for a third time to build a geologic disposal facility (GDF) for high-level radioactive waste, an official with the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said Tuesday. “There’s quite a lot of trust that needs to be built in the communities, […]

MANCHESTER, England – Like the United States, the United Kingdom is holding off on defining the term “community consent” in its most prominent nuclear waste storage project, the geological disposal facility (GDF). “Standing here right now, I don’t have in front of me a formula which addresses those issues,” Ivan Stone, stakeholder engagement and communications […]

MANCHESTER – Like the U.S., the U.K. is holding off on defining the term “community consent” in its most prominent nuclear waste storage project, the Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). “Standing here right now, I don’t have in front of me a formula which addresses those issues,” Ivan Stone, stakeholder engagement and communications director for U.K. […]

MANCHESTER — Transparency will be the focus as the government tries to avoid failing for a third time to build a Geologic Disposal Facility (GDF) for high-level waste, an official with the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said Tuesday. “There’s quite a lot of trust that needs to be built in the communities, and that […]

Russia has postponed a nuclear waste disposal agreement with Ukraine because the latter has been unable to make payments, according to the Russian state-owned news agency TASS. The agency made the announcement Monday, saying that Ukraine has seen about $7.95 billion seized from the company, Energoatom, the largest energy provider in the country. Ukraine signed […]

The White House threatened late Monday to veto the House’s version of the Energy Department’s 2017 budget over $170 million the bill would provide to begin licensing the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository — something the Obama administration unequivocally opposes. “The Administration objects to the funding provided in the bill for Yucca Mountain and is […]

Commissioner William Ostendorff, who is leaving his post at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in June, said Friday that he’s not a zealot for the repository proposed at Yucca Mountain, but rather for following the law. Ostendorff spoke with media over the phone Friday afternoon as he prepares to leave NRC for a teaching position with his alma […]

South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill said Tuesday the government will ultimately decide the fate of the state’s proposed nuclear waste disposal facility, the same day he approved a new government agency to facilitate community engagement on the project. In its final report issued last week, the Nuclear Fuel Cycle Royal Commission recommended that South Australia […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has denied two petitions from 34 environmental groups, which claim the regulator’s “piecemeal” approach to its continued storage rule hides the environmental significance of certain regulations on spent fuel storage and disposal at nuclear power plants. The continued storage rule, formerly known as the waste confidence rule, includes a sweeping, generic […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials on Wednesday defined the agency’s role in the Department of Energy’s consent-based siting effort for nuclear waste storage, saying the best approach is to monitor the effort’s progress rather than becoming involved in the direction of the program NRC Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Director Mark Lombard and Yucca Mountain Directorate chief James […]