Interim Storage & Waste Disposal

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/23/2014 A group of Michigan state lawmakers introduced a set of legislation this week that aims to protect the Great Lakes region from a proposed Canadian deep geologic repository for low and intermediate radioactive waste in Kincardine, Ont. Ontario Power Generation’s planned repository has received sharp criticism from both state […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/23/2014 As part of efforts to move spent nuclear fuel at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to dry cask storage, owner Entergy plans to submit a formal request to the Vermont Public Service Board by the end of June. As part of the agreement between the state of Vermont and […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 5/23/2014 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburgh District has begun planning a new procurement to award a new security contract for the Shallow Land Disposal Area, a Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program site in Armstrong County, Pa. According to a pre-solicitation notice issued late last week, the new […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will not require the expedited transfer of spent nuclear fuel pools to dry cask storage. The Commission voted 4-1 to close the Tier 3 Japan lessons-learned activity, concluding that the NRC Staff’s recommendation satisfied safety requirements. The NRC Staff’s draft study on spent fuel pools, released last year, determined that U.S. […]

Southern California Edison expects to completely transfer the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s spent fuel pool inventory by 2019, according to the draft Irradiated Fuel Management Plan the company presented at last week’s Community Engagement Panel meeting. Local stakeholders, including Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) have been vocal about their […]

A group of Michigan state lawmakers will introduce a bill today that aims to protect the Great Lakes region from a Canadian proposed deep geologic repository for low and intermediate radioactive waste in Kincardine, Ont. Ontario Power Generation’s planned DGR has received sharp criticism from both state and congressional lawmakers on the United States’ side […]

The date that the Nuclear Waste Fund fee will be reduced to zero has been pushed back to Friday. The original date for the court ordered reduction in the fee was supposed to occur this Thursday, according to a memo circulated by the Department of Energy to fee payers late last week, but a new […]

A group of senators, including Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), introduced three pieces of legislation yesterday that would enhance and expand safety and security regulations at decommissioning reactor sites and the storage of spent nuclear fuel at nuclear plants. The senators, […]

Valhi, Inc., the parent company of Waste Control Specialists, reported that its waste management segment suffered an operating loss of $8.5 million in the first quarter of 2014, down from an operating loss of $1.6 million in the same period of 2013. In its quarterly filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Valhi blamed the […]

The latest round of House Republican outrage concerning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s handling of the Yucca Mountain licensing review occurred yesterday during a House Energy and Power Subcommittee hearing as lawmakers chastised the Commission for failing to request funds to complete the review as well as failing to provide information on the estimated cost to […]

AREVA TN announced yesterday that it has received a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license for a cask capable of transporting high burnup used nuclear fuel. The NUHOMS MP197HB Transport Package has a heat load capacity of 32 kilowatts and is capable of transporting nine different canister types. “Our MP197HB offers utilities the flexibility to transport used […]

The deadline to respond to a Sources Sought Synopsis/Request For Information related to the treatment of low-level radioactive waste and mixed low-level waste by the Department of Energy has been extended by a week. The previous deadline was April 28, but the new deadline will be May 5, according to a modification to the Sources […]

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy found that high-level waste disposal in salt, clay/shale rocks, and crystalline rock formations could all provide robust long-term isolation for specific wastes, according to a DOE report released yesterday. The report, titled "Evaluation of Options for Permanent Geologic Disposal of Spent Nuclear Fuel and High-Level Radioactive Waste," […]

The Department of Energy’s Idaho office is conducting a market survey for the lease and loading of casks with spent nuclear fuel as well as the transportation of the fuel from non-commercial research reactors to the Idaho National Laboratory, according to a Sources Sought notice this week. The survey is intended for small businesses to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received a petition to consolidate all regulations that relate to the environmental impacts of spent fuel storage and disposal, according to a posting in the Federal Register yesterday. The petitioners include the same group of 34 activist organizations that grouped together to petition the NRC to consider the expedited transfer […]

The Department of Energy-Idaho is conducting a market survey for the lease and loading of casks with spent nuclear fuel as well as the transportation of the fuel from non-commercial research reactors to the Idaho National Laboratory, according to a Sources Sought notice posted to FedBizOpps this week. The survey is intended for small businesses […]

The agreement between EnergySolutions and Waste Control Specialists to ship Class B and C low-level radioactive waste from the Zion decommissioning project appears to remain intact, but it is unclear when, or if, shipments are likely to occur, according to EnergySolutions spokesman Mark Walker. Previously, the agreement appeared to have fallen apart completely after EnergySolutions […]

The Department of Energy plans to deliver the technical report containing information needed to complete the Yucca Mountain groundwater supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission “as early as the end of April,” said William Boyle, DOE’s director of the Office of Used Nuclear Fuel Disposition R&D, during an NRC public meeting yesterday. […]

A group of Mississippi state lawmakers proposed a resolution last week in the state legislature that would voice the state’s opposition to potentially hosting high-level nuclear waste. The proposed resolution, introduced by four Republican Representatives from Southern Mississippi, followed a separate attempt by the state’s Public Service Commission to pass a similar resolution against hosting […]

Texas Governor Rick Perry revealed his support for examining the state’s role in potentially storing high-level waste in a letter he sent to Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst and Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus late last week. In his Interim Committee Charges, Straus asked Texas’ Committee on Environmental Regulation to consider the logistics […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff announced that it will meet with the Department of Energy on April 7 to discuss DOE’s recent announcement that it would not complete the Yucca Mountain supplemental Environmental Impact Statement requested by the NRC to complete the licensing review. DOE is arguing that since it submitted a groundwater EIS in […]

Robatel Technologies received its certificate of compliance from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that enables its Type-B shipping cask to begin transporting waste. Waste Control Specialists contracted with Robatel to provide three Type B casks capable of shipping Class B and C low-level radioactive waste. The first of the three casks was delivered in January, while […]

Language referring to the availability of a repository "when needed" within the Waste Confidence rulemaking may change or be deleted altogether when the final ruling comes out, said Andy Imboden from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards during a Commission meeting Friday on the status of the Waste Confidence review. […]

The Department of Energy is expected to announce as early as today an agreement with Waste Control Specialists for temporary storage of transuranic waste from Los Alamos during the shutdown of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, WC Monitor has learned. Los Alamos National Laboratory is in the midst of a campaign to remove 3,706 cubic […]

The Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied two separate motions yesterday that would have re-opened the court’s decision to reduce the Nuclear Waste Fund fee to zero. The Department of Energy filed a motion for re-hearing by the original three judge panel that unanimously agreed to reduce the fee as well as a […]

NRC Commissioner William Magwood said yesterday at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Regulatory Information Conference that the Commission’s Waste Confidence update remains on track, although he anticipates more legal challenges to “whatever we come up with.” “We are on track for this fall that that process for Waste Confidence should be over,” Magwood said. “We have […]

NRC Chair Allison Macfarlane reiterated yesterday that the Commission is still considering its options on how to move forward with the supplemental environmental impact statement required for the Yucca Mountain licensing review after the Department of Energy said it would not complete it two weeks ago. “We’re still considering what our options are,” Macfarlane said […]

The Department of Energy will not complete the supplemental environmental impact statement that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requested be completed to support its review of the Yucca Mountain licensing, although DOE will give NRC all the technical information it has on the EIS and suggested the NRC prepare the report itself. DOE had indicated previously […]

The group that successfully petitioned the court for a writ of mandamus to compel the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to re-start the Yucca Mountain licensing review is seeking lawyer fees from the NRC, according to a motion filed this week. The petitioners, made up of Aiken County, S.C., State of South Carolina, State of Washington, and […]

A group made up of 34 organizations is petitioning the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to halt all reviews of new licenses and license renewals due to new findings the NRC Staff reported in its Expedited Spent Fuel Transfer Proceeding that said a small nuclear reactor pool fire could render 9,400 square miles uninhabitable and displace 4.1 […]