Reactor Licensing & Regulation

Westinghouse is bringing in a former Holtec Decommissioning International c-suite executive to take over its biggest business line, the company announced recently. Pamela Cowan, who was senior vice president and chief operating officer of Holtec’s decommissioning branch, will become president of Westinghouse’s Americas operating plant services unit, according to a press release published Sep. 9. […]

A group of Maryland environmental activists Monday protested Congress’s proposed tax credits aimed at saving economically-troubled nuclear power plants, according to a press release. Activists from Beyond Nuclear and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service (NIRS) among others delivered letters Monday to Reps. Jamie Raskin and John Sarbanes (both D-Md.) during a “national day of […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s highest-ranking career executive is leaving the agency next month, according to a press release Monday. Margaret Doane, who currently serves as NRC’s executive director of operations, will leave her post effective Oct. 8, the agency said in a statement Monday. Doane is headed to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) where […]

Westinghouse is bringing in a former Holtec Decommissioning International c-suite executive to take over its biggest business line, the company announced last week. Pamela Cowan, who was senior vice president and chief operating officer of Holtec’s decommissioning branch, will become president of Westinghouse’s Americas operating plant services unit, according to a press release published Thursday. […]

A new vaccine mandate from the White House will force the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s federal workforce to get the jab, while the agency says the majority of its staff are still working from home. The Joe Biden administration’s Thursday evening executive order directed federal agencies like NRC to develop a “program to require COVID-19 vaccination […]

Members of the public are getting even more time to leave comments on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s planned agency-wide environmental justice review, according to a notice published this week. The new deadline for community input on NRC’s review is Oct. 29, according to a Federal Register notice published Friday morning. This is the agency’s second […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is still keeping its workforce at home as the COVID-19 Delta variant spikes infections across the country. NRC is following the Office of Management and Budget and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines for managing the pandemic, a spokesperson for the agency told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing via email Wednesday. […]

A Louisiana nuclear power plant that shut down as Hurricane Ida passed through has site power back online, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week. Waterford Nuclear Generating Station, located about 25 miles from New Orleans, got its offsite electrical power back Tuesday evening, NRC said in a statement published Wednesday morning on Facebook.  The […]

The sponsors of a proposed bill banning the storage of high level nuclear waste in Texas, which passed the state Senate Wednesday, are using a parliamentary gambit to get the law on the books before the federal government can license a planned interim storage facility in the Lone Star State. After unanimously passing the Texas […]

As Hurricane Ida rolls through Louisiana, one of two nuclear power plants in the storm’s path is offline while the other is operating at reduced capacity, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday. Waterford Nuclear Generating Station, located about 25 miles from New Orleans, lost offsite electrical power Sunday evening, NRC said in a statement published […]

A proposed bill that would ban the storage of high-level nuclear waste in Texas got a new lease on life last week after its second iteration made it through the state House. The measure, proposed by state Rep. Brooks Landgraf (R), passed via voice vote in a special meeting of the state House Friday evening. […]

An Ohio lawmaker has requested the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio seek a third-party investigation of its former chair who resigned due to a scandal over state subsidies for two FirstEnergy nuclear reactors. On Wednesday, state Rep. Jeffrey Crossman (D) sent a letter to current Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) chair Jenifer French requesting […]

The House should vote Sept. 27 on a bipartisan infrastructure bill that includes a cash injection for financially-struggling nuclear power plants, now that Democrats have resolved an intra-party logjam. Party leadership settled on that date Tuesday after several days of negotiations with dissenting House Democrats who did not want to continue work on a partisan […]

A bill proposing to ban high-level nuclear waste storage in Texas, which previously died in the state legislature, is getting a second wind during a special session, with some minor alterations. State Rep. Brooks Landgraf’s (R) reintroduced measure, which passed the Texas House’s environmental regulation committee on a 6-2 vote Monday, aims to prevent high-level […]

The Department of Energy is taking public comment on a draft environmental assessment of its plan to grout up to 2,000 gallons of low-activity tank waste at the Hanford Site in Washington and ship the material out of state.  The 14-day public comment period on the Test Best Initiative, officially started Saturday and runs through […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced late last week that it was extending the comment period for its Environmental Justice review through September 22.  The commission is seeking “input on how the agency is addressing environmental justice, considering the agency’s mission and statutory authority,” according to a Federal Register notice published August 10. The agency has […]

San Diego’s county commission this week joined a group lobbying the federal government to remove the shuttered San Onofre Generating Station’s spent fuel from the California coast. The San Diego County board of supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to use as much as $100,000 to hire a contractor that would manage the county’s participation in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday offered a strongly-worded rebuke to the New Mexico attorney general’s claim that a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel violates federal law, according to a new court filing. NRC has the right to license commercial facilities under the Atomic Energy Act (AEA), the agency argued in the […]

Southwestern host states probably cannot stop construction of temporary spent-fuel depots in their territories by arguing that licensing such sites is against federal law, a couple of retired nuclear policy hands opined this week. Pending a few more reviews, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission could license Interim Storage Partners’ proposed commercial interim storage facility in west […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday offered a strongly-worded rebuke to the New Mexico attorney general’s claim that a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel violates federal law, according to a new court filing. NRC has the right to license commercial facilities under the Atomic Energy Act (AEA), the agency argued in the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will end mandatory telework and allow in-person work to resume by the end of next month, the agency said in a recent letter to staff. As part of its “full re-entry” program, NRC staff can return to their offices September 26, the agency said in the letter dated July 30. Although […]

Members of the public have a bit more time to weigh in on how the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is handling issues of environmental justice, the agency said this week. September 22 is the new deadline for public comment on NRC’s current environmental justice posture, which it will use as part of a “systematic” review of […]

Although it was on the menu for a special session of the Texas legislature, the body didn’t debate this week legislation to address a proposed interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel in the state. Several days of special sessions of the state Senate ended without discussion on Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) proposed interim storage […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will end mandatory telework and allow in-person work to resume by the end of next month, the agency said in a recent letter to staff. As part of its “full re-entry” program, NRC staff can return to their offices September 26, the agency said in the letter dated July 30. Although […]

The company in charge of decommissioning Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear power station accused a nuclear watchdog of serious process fouls after the group’s latest attempt to halt the plant’s license transfer, according to a regulatory filing. NRC should no longer allow Three Mile Island Alert to “blatantly ignore” reasonable requirements of public participation in […]

Despite being on the menu for a special session this weekend, the Texas legislature hasn’t yet heard debate on legislation to address a proposed interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel in the state. Saturday’s special session of the state Senate ended without discussion on Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) proposed interim storage facility in Andrews […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is planning to fire its next salvo this month in an ongoing legal battle over one of two proposed interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel, according to a court filing this week. NRC will file its next brief in the case over Holtec International’s proposed storage facility in New Mexico […]

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved all of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s funding request for the upcoming fiscal year at a markup this week. In a 25-5 vote Wednesday the Senate Appropriations Committee passed its version of the annual Energy and Water Development budget, which included every dime of NRC’s roughly $874 million request for fiscal […]

In a special session starting this weekend, the Texas state legislature will get another chance to pass laws that could make it harder to dispose of some radioactive waste in the state. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has called the special session of the legislature at a time when a privately operated waste disposal company […]

After a Tuesday hearing to vet a nominee for a senior Department of Energy job, New Mexico’s senior senator pounded the table about making sure proposed interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel do not turn into permanent repositories. “The concern, really, is that the department does not have a plan to ensure that any […]