Reactor Licensing & Regulation

Antinuclear activists want the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to speed up oral arguments in a federal lawsuit aimed at blocking a life extension for California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant. The groups, San Luis Obsipo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth and Environmental Working Group, asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals bump the scheduled briefings […]

The chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission paid a visit to the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in Avila Beach, Calif., last week, local media reported. Chair Christopher Hanson toured the facility, located about 200 miles northwest of Los Angeles, while commission staff are working with plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric to keep the plant […]

Antinuclear activists want the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to speed up oral arguments in a federal lawsuit aimed at blocking a life extension for California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant. The groups, San Luis Obsipo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth and Environmental Working Group, asked the U.S. Ninth Circuit of Appeals bump the scheduled briefings […]

The chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission paid a visit to the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in Avila Beach, Calif., last week, local media reported. Chair Christopher Hanson toured the facility, located about 200 miles northwest of Los Angeles, while commission staff are working with plant operator Pacific Gas & Electric to keep the plant […]

A bill that would force reviews of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s efficiency and extend caps on industry liability for catastrophic nuclear accidents cleared a Senate committee Wednesday on a 16-3 bipartisan vote. Only three Democrats opposed the bill, the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act of 2023. Sens. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), […]

A company seeking to build a small modular demonstration reactor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site has received a qualified endorsement from a Nuclear Regulatory Commission advisory panel. Kairos Power said last week on Twitter the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards has recommended issuance of the construction permit for the […]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee was supposed to vote Wednesday on whether to give Jeffrey Baran another five years on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but the vote never happened. “Why did we not vote Baran?” someone in the committee room said near a hot microphone after the body wrapped up its other business […]

A bill that would force reviews of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s efficiency and extend caps on industry liability for catastrophic nuclear accidents cleared a Senate committee Wednesday on a 16-3 bipartisan vote. Only three Democrats opposed the bill, the Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy (ADVANCE) Act of 2023. Sens. Bernard Sanders […]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee was supposed to vote Wednesday on whether to give Jeffrey Baran another five years on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but the vote never happened. “Why did we not vote Baran?” someone in the committee room said near a hot microphone after the body wrapped up its other business […]

A company seeking to build a small modular demonstration reactor at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge Site has received a qualified endorsement from a Nuclear Regulatory Commission advisory panel. Kairos Power said Thursday via Twitter the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards has recommended issuance of the construction permit for the […]

A land developer will not soon be building what amounts to a small city in the buffer zone around the Diablo Canyon Power Plant after a California court ruled Monday that the developer does not have a valid lease on the land. The Local San Luis Obispo Tribune first reported the proposed ruling in the Superior Court of […]

Butte County, Idaho has already tried and failed to convince federal courts the locality is entitled to “impact payments” because of ongoing storage of spent nuclear fuel at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, according to Justice Department legal papers filed Monday. “Plaintiff already tested—and lost—its theory that it was entitled to impact assistance […]

Oklo, a California-based developer of small modular reactors, announced plans to build two new nuclear units near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio, according to a May 18 press release. Oklo’s commercial power plants will provide up to 30 megawatts of non-carbon emitting electric power, and more than 50 megawatts of heating, with […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff plan to submit a proposed rulemaking about near-surface disposal of Greater Than Class C waste to the commission in November, officials told the public Wednesday. The proposed rule, years in the making, combines a 2015 inquiry into a rules change for Greater-Than-Class-C (GTCC) waste with changes to low-level waste disposal governed […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this week advanced a bill that would require the Department of Energy to report on the costs of implementing a federal bailout for struggling nuclear power plants.  S. 452, the Nuclear Fuel Security Act of 2023, would require DOE to report by 180 days after the measure becomes […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff plan to submit a proposed rulemaking about near-surface disposal of Greater Than Class C waste to the commission in November, officials told the public Wednesday. The proposed rule, years in the making, combines a 2015 inquiry into a rules change for Greater-Than-Class-C (GTCC) waste with changes to low-level waste disposal governed […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could issue a Federal Register notice this week of a draft environmental review to allow Waste Control Specialists to move stranded Department of Energy transuranic waste to a different location within the company’s 1,300-acre property in preparation for its ultimate removal from Texas, a federal spokesperson said Tuesday. The public notice, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission planned to hold a meeting Wednesday about a long-awaited proposed rulemaking that will cover both low-level waste and Greater Than Class C waste. The NRC last week published a few of the slides it planned to brief at Wednesday’s scheduled meeting, on the slate for 1:00 p.m. Eastern time and officially […]

A man who threatened to sue the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over the failure of a neutron imaging business can have his day in court if he wants it, the commission said late last week. “Your claim did not reveal that you suffered any damage to or loss of property or personal injury or death caused […]

In a Tuesday hearing about his nomination to a third term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Republican Senators painted Commissioner Jeffrey Baran as an impediment to nuclear progress. However, none of the Republicans who questioned Baran in his Wednesday nomination hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said they would oppose his nomination. […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm is holding out hope that the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan, which she governed from 2003 to 2007, will roar back to life. “There is hopefully an effort to try to revive that,” Granholm testified Thursday during a frequently contentious hearing of the House Energy and Commerce energy, climate, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week licensed Holtec International to operate a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico, where politicians vowed to block the project. Holtec’s is one of two proposed consolidated interim storage facilities the NRC has licensed over the last two years to receive spent fuel. If built, […]

Some of the heaviest hitters in New Mexico politics united this week to oppose construction of the interim spent fuel storage facility the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensed Holtec International to operate in the state. Holtec has not said when it might begin building the facility, which under an NRC license granted Tuesday may operate for […]

In a Tuesday hearing about his nomination to a third term on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Republican Senators painted Commissioner Jeffrey Baran as an impediment to nuclear progress. However, none of the Republicans who questioned Baran in his Wednesday nomination hearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee said they would oppose his nomination.  […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday licensed Holtec International to operate a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico, agency documents show. The proposed facility, which Jupiter, Fla.-based Holtec calls HI-STORE, may receive 8,680 metric tons of uranium, the equivalent of 500 canisters, “in the form of undamaged fuel assemblies, damaged […]

A man who threatened to sue the Nuclear Regulatory Commission over the failure of a neutron imaging business can have his day in court if he wants it, the commission said late last week. “Your claim did not reveal that you suffered any damage to or loss of property or personal injury or death caused […]

Environmentalists sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to stop the planned extension of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California, according to a court filing dated April 28. San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace, Friends of the Earth, and Environmental Working Group sued the commission in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that NRC’s […]

Utah’s state-backed Carbon Free Power Project may need an exemption to existing Nuclear Regulatory Commission decommissioning funding requirements for the six NuScale Power small modular reactors the company plans to build at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory, commission staff wrote in a letter to NuScale. The letter was published online May 1 and […]

The White House sent Jeff Baran’s nomination for another five years on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to the Senate, where the chair of the committee in charge of vetting the commissioner has vowed swift advancement, if possible. The Joe Biden administration officially nominated Baran on Tuesday, according to a White House press release, fulfilling the […]

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission board in May plans to decide whether a citizen’s group can contest a utility’s plan to renew a license for storing the spent fuel of California’s last nuclear power plant, the commission said Monday. An NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board planned to hear arguments on May 24 from the San […]