Reactor Licensing & Regulation

The four members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were scheduled to appear publicly on Thursday for a brief procedural vote about a California utility’s request to dismiss an antinuclear group’s request for a hearing about the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. In what is known as an affirmation session, the commission members will briefly appear in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week declined to rule on a request by a group of environmentalists to shut down one of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s reactors. Instead, commission staff will look at the request by a pair of perennial antinuclear groups. It is the outcome that both NRC staff and plant operator Pacific […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission repeatedly failed to ensure the safety of test reactors across the country, including at a government agency in Maryland and a shuttered imaging facility in California whose owner had complained of lax commission oversight, according to a recent report from the agency’s Inspector General. The Inspector General uncovered the lapses by […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission repeatedly failed to ensure the safety of test reactors across the country, including at a government agency in Maryland and a shuttered imaging facility in California whose owner had complained of lax commission oversight, according to a recent report from the agency’s Inspector General. The Inspector General uncovered the lapses by […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week declined to rule on a request by a group of environmentalists to shut down one of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s reactors. Instead, commission staff will look at the request by a pair of perennial antinuclear groups. It is the outcome that both NRC staff and plant operator Pacific […]

Holtec International made its first filing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to support a restart of the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Covert, Mich., the company announced Friday. Holtec on Sept. 28 asked the NRC for relief from a commission regulation that forbids refueling a shuttered reactor that has been emptied in preparation for decommissioning. […]

An environmental coalition’s “last-ditch attack” on California’s only operating nuclear plant is riddled with legal errors and willfully disregards the state’s plans for the plant, Pacific Gas and Electric wrote in a recent court filing. The lawsuit does not belong in court in the first place and the anti-nuclear groups’ argument rests on a faulty […]

Environmentalists say their plea to shut down Diablo Canyon’s Unit 1 reactor is too important to be treated like a routine Nuclear Regulatory Commission proceeding and should be sent directly to the commission immediately. The environmental groups, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace and Friends of the Earth, say Unit 1’s reactor pressure vessel is […]

Environmentalists say their plea to shut down Diablo Canyon’s Unit 1 reactor is too important to be treated like a routine Nuclear Regulatory Commission proceeding and should be sent directly to the commission immediately. The environmental groups, San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace and Friends of the Earth, say Unit 1’s reactor pressure vessel is […]

An environmental coalition’s “last-ditch attack” on California’s only operating nuclear plant is riddled with legal errors and willfully disregards the state’s plans for the plant, Pacific Gas and Electric wrote in a recent court filing. The lawsuit does not belong in court in the first place and the anti-nuclear groups’ argument rests on a faulty […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should not vote on environmentalists’ requests to shut down one of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s two reactors until agency staff weigh in on the request, staff said Monday. It is the latest in a series of attempts by the groups to have Diablo Canyon shut down prior to 2030, the […]

Antinuclear activists suing the U.S. government to stop a life extension for the Diablo Canyon Power Plant could present oral arguments to a federal court in Pasadena, Calif., in early 2024, a recent court filing shows. In an order last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said it might order the parties to court […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should not vote on environmentalists’ requests to shut down one of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s two reactors until agency staff weigh in on the request, staff said Monday. It is the latest in a series of attempts by the groups to have Diablo Canyon shut down prior to 2030, the […]

Antinuclear activists suing the U.S. government to stop a life extension for the Diablo Canyon Power Plant could present oral arguments to a federal court in Pasadena, Calif., in early 2024, a recent court filing shows. In an order last week, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said it might order the parties to court […]

A day after an all-hands meeting at NRC headquarters, which largely focused on remote work, Dan Dorman, the agency’s executive director for operations and chief steward of its latest remote work rules, faced questions from a House committee about post-pandemic telework policies. Congress this year has grilled the NRC about reported dips in employee morale. […]

Most Nuclear Regulatory Commission commissioners are open to taking control of the agency’s telework rules, teeing up yet another shift in remote-work policy at an agency that has struggled to settle on one. The issue is now “a voting matter” for the commissioners, who “agreed that October 31 was the date in order to prompt […]

California waded into a lawsuit filed by environmental groups opposed to a life-extension for the state’s last nuclear power plant, writing in a legal filing last week that the plan “presents no undue risk” to the public. In a friend-of-the court brief uploaded Friday and dated Sept. 5, California asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court […]

No major safety or operational issues were found during a recent Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection of the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, clearing the way for the facility to produce high-assay, low-enriched uranium fuel. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) officials completed an inspection of the American Centrifuge Plant on Aug. 16. In a Sept. 7 […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans an Oct. 19 hearing on a proposal by Kairos Power to build a demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tenn., on land once used for a Department of Energy gaseous diffusion plant. The hearing at Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) headquarters in Rockville, Md., marks the final phase of the agency’s review […]

No major safety or operational issues were found during a recent Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection of the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, clearing the way for the facility to produce high-assay, low-enriched uranium fuel. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) officials completed an inspection of the American Centrifuge Plant on Aug. 16. In a Sept. 7 […]

California waded into a lawsuit filed by environmental groups opposed to a life-extension for the state’s last nuclear power plant, writing in a legal filing last week that the plan “presents no undue risk” to the public. In a friend-of-the court brief uploaded Friday and dated Sept. 5, California asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans an Oct. 19 hearing on a proposal by Kairos Power to build a demonstration reactor in Oak Ridge, Tenn., on land once used for a Department of Energy gaseous diffusion plant. The hearing at Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) headquarters in Rockville, Md., marks the final phase of the agency’s review […]

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission board should toss an environmentalist group’s effort to block a license extension for Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s spent fuel storage facility, commission staff recommended Sept. 5. The group, San Luis Obsipo Mothers for Peace, had successfully used a legal technicality to steer the renewal application toward a hearing with an NRC […]

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission board should toss an environmentalist group’s effort to block a license extension for Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s spent fuel storage facility, commission staff recommended Sept. 5. The group, San Luis Obsipo Mothers for Peace, had successfully used a legal technicality to steer the renewal application toward a hearing with an NRC […]

A state court ruled last week that California can proceed with its effort to keep the Diablo Canyon Power Plant online into the 2030s, spurning an environmentalist group’s argument that the plan violated a contract. A 2022 state law that allowed a five-year life extension for the plant’s two reactors essentially voided the contract that […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week appointed Brooke Clark its new general counsel, effective Oct. 15. Clark will be the agency’s chief legal advisor. She will replace Marian Zobler who was to retire, the agency wrote in a news release. Since 1998, when she joined the NRC for the first time, Clark has bounced to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not have the staff it needs to license new nuclear reactor designs and needs to take another look at its hiring programs before that can change, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office. The agency, which regulates civilian nuclear power plants and the waste they produce, has […]

A state court ruled last week that California can proceed with its effort to keep the Diablo Canyon Power Plant online into the 2030s, spurning an environmentalist group’s argument that the plan violated a contract. A 2022 state law that allowed a five-year life extension for the plant’s two reactors essentially voided the contract that […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not have the staff it needs to license new nuclear reactor designs and needs to take another look at its hiring programs before that can change, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office. The agency, which regulates civilian nuclear power plants and the waste they produce, has […]

Recently, Pacific Gas and Electric formally communicated to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it intends to apply for a license extension that could keep the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant operating into the 2060s. By Dec. 31, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) will ask NRC to extend Diablo Canyon’s two reactors “for up to 20 […]