Reactor Licensing & Regulation

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission allowed the Tennessee Valley Authority to work some people harder during an ongoing service outage at the Watts Bar 2 nuclear reactor, where the restart of tritium production for nuclear weapons has slipped to June from mid-May, the commission said. The outage now “is now scheduled to be completed by early […]

Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. As we head into what looks like a rainy weekend here in Washington, here are some other stories RadWaste Monitor was tracking across the civilian nuclear power space this week. Granholm visits Michigan nuclear research facility The Secretary of Energy this week attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony at a new Michigan State University […]

The White House this week announced its nominees to fill the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s two open executive seats, including one former commissioner who left the agency last summer. If Annie Caputo and Bradley Crowell’s nominations, which the Joe Biden administration announced in a press release Tuesday, get through Congress, they would fill two seats on […]

The White House Tuesday announced its nominees to fill the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s two open executive seats, including one former commissioner who left the agency last summer. If Annie Caputo and Bradley Crowell’s nominations, which the Joe Biden administration announced in a press release Tuesday, get through Congress, they would fill two seats on NRC’s […]

The company aiming to build an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Texas joined the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in calling for a state lawsuit to be kicked out of a federal appeals court, according to a new filing on the docket. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s arguments against Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) proposed […]

The company aiming to build an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in Texas joined the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in calling for a state lawsuit to be kicked out of a federal appeals court, according to a new filing on the docket. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s arguments against Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) proposed […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week continued to poke holes in the state of Texas’s lawsuit over an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel proposed for Andrews County, arguing that the Lone Star State had no right to sue — and even if it did, that its case was badly flawed. Texas hasn’t shown […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday continued to poke holes in the state of Texas’s lawsuit over an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel proposed for Andrews County, arguing that the Lone Star State had no right to sue — and even if it did, that its case was badly flawed. Texas hasn’t shown […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s existing framework for applying principles of environmental justice to its oversight activities needs to more clearly state what such a process would look like at the agency, a staff review team informed the commission late last month. “[T]here is not a common understanding both internally and externally of how [environmental justice] […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s existing framework for applying principles of environmental justice to its oversight activities needs to more clearly state what such a process would look like at the agency, a staff review team informed the commission late last month. “[T]here is not a common understanding both internally and externally of how [environmental justice] […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved an agency staff suggestion to combine two ongoing radioactive-waste rulemakings into one in an effort to streamline the process, according to a memo this week. The commissioners’ unanimous approval, announced in a Wednesday memo, means that NRC staff will now re-issue a new proposed rulemaking combining an existing inquiry […]

Another nuclear plant closure is partly to blame for a slight increase in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s proposed decommissioning budget for the 2023 fiscal year, the agency said in a budget justification document published this week. Projected spending for NRC’s decommissioning and low-level waste program was up to around $23.9 million for 2023, according to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved an agency staff suggestion to combine two ongoing radioactive-waste rulemakings into one in an effort to streamline the process, according to a Wednesday memo. The commissioners’ unanimous approval means that NRC staff will now re-issue a new proposed rulemaking combining an existing inquiry into a rules change for Greater-Than-Class-C […]

Another nuclear plant closure is partly to blame for a slight increase in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s proposed decommissioning budget for the 2023 fiscal year, the agency said in a budget justification document published Monday. Projected spending for NRC’s decommissioning and low-level waste program was up to around $23.9 million for 2023, according to the […]

A report on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s environmental justice efforts based on a months-long review process is ready for agency leadership to look over, a spokesperson said this week. The environmental justice review team, led by Gregory Suber, deputy chief of NRC’s operating reactor licensing division, sent its findings to the commission Tuesday, an agency […]

Proposed 2023 funding for the Department of Energy’s nuclear power authority, which runs the agency’s civilian nuclear waste programs, was about flat compared to 2022 appropriations, according to budget documents released this week.  The White House proposed around $1.67 billion for DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), according to its budget request published Monday. That […]

A report on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s environmental justice efforts based on a months-long review process is ready for agency leadership to look over, a spokesperson said Wednesday. The environmental justice review team, led by Gregory Suber, deputy chief of NRC’s operating reactor licensing division, sent its findings to the commission Tuesday, an agency spokesperson […]

If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s budget request for the 2023 fiscal year is approved by Congress, the agency’s nuclear decommissioning oversight activities would get a small increase, according to budget justification documents published Monday. NRC’s request for its decommissioning and low-level waste segment was around $24 million for fiscal 2023, according to budget tables the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission violated federal law when it licensed a proposed commercial facility in Texas to store nearly half of the country’s spent nuclear fuel, a coalition of anti-nuclear groups argued last week as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the agency. NRC, which in September gave its blessing to Waste Control Specialists-Orano USA […]

New Mexico’s attorney general moved his fight against commercial interim storage to an appeals court after a District Court threw out his first challenge to the site in early March, according to recent court documents. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has until May 9 to respond to state Attorney General Hector Balderas’s most recent arguments against […]

New Mexico’s attorney general moved his fight against commercial interim storage to an appeals court after a District Court threw out his first challenge to the site in early March, according to recent court documents. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has until May 9 to respond to state Attorney General Hector Balderas’s most recent arguments against […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission violated federal law when it licensed a proposed commercial facility in Texas to store nearly half of the country’s spent nuclear fuel, a coalition of anti-nuclear groups argued Friday as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the agency. NRC, which in September gave its blessing to Waste Control Specialists-Orano USA joint […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is working to hammer out the details of its role in the Department of Energy’s legally-mandated civil nuclear credits program, according to slides published this week in advance of a planned NRC meeting. The commission is “developing criteria” to evaluate applications from economically-troubled nuclear plant operators hoping to get a piece […]

Nearly all of the commercial nuclear power reactors in the U.S. meet the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s highest regulatory standards, the agency said in a press release this week. NRC has issued its 2021 performance reports to all 93 of the country’s operating nuclear plants, the commission said, and of those sites, 91 were in NRC’s […]

PHOENIX — Holtec International’s proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel could be greenlit by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the coming months, the company’s government services lead said here this week. NRC could make a licensing decision on the Holtec site, proposed for Eddy County, N.M., by the second quarter of 2022, Vice […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff working on a proposed decommissioning rules change are planning to have the final version of the updated regulations on the commissioners’ desks by next year, the project’s manager said at an annual agency conference this week. The final decommissioning rule, a draft of which went live for public comment March 3, […]

Autonomy is one of the nuclear regulator’s most important assets, especially where developing nuclear technology is concerned, the chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week at a virtual annual conference.  “In the past few years, as climate change and energy security have come to the fore as existential threats, many have rallied around […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff working on a proposed decommissioning rules change are planning to have the final version of the updated regulations on the commissioners’ desks by next year, the project’s manager said at an annual agency conference Wednesday. The final decommissioning rule, a draft of which went live for public comment March 3, should […]

One of the three serving commissioners at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission went to bat for the agency’s proposed decommissioning rules change Tuesday at an annual regulatory conference. Commissioner David Wright, who in November voted alongside NRC Chairman Christopher Hanson to approve a set of rules updates aimed at lowering regulatory barriers for nuclear plant operators […]

Autonomy is one of the nuclear regulator’s most important assets, especially where developing nuclear technology is concerned, the chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday at a virtual annual conference.  “In the past few years, as climate change and energy security have come to the fore as existential threats, many have rallied around nuclear […]