Reactor Licensing & Regulation

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved all of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s funding request for the upcoming fiscal year at a Wednesday markup. 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 2022.  […]

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 […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff recommended granting a 40-year license extension to Westinghouse Government Services’ Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina, which among other things manufactures the rods used to restock the tritium reservoirs of U.S. nuclear weapons. The recommendation was part of a draft environmental impact statement published Friday.  The 40-year extension would kick […]

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 Monday. NRC will file its next brief in the case over Holtec International’s proposed storage facility in New Mexico by […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission should certify that the parties involved with decommissioning Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear power plant comply with environmental law and that there’s a plan in place for water use at the site, a watchdog group said in a new filing with the agency. Citing new evidence in the form of emails […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is officially doing away with a proposed rulemaking that would govern spent fuel reprocessing, according to an agency notice published this week. Declining industry interest in spent fuel reprocessing, higher priorities in spent fuel management and “budgetary constraints” were the main drivers in discontinuing the staff rulemaking activity that began in […]

A federal suit against a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel remains in limbo while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission works through licensing proceedings, according to a court filing from the agency this week. Holtec International’s application for a federal license to build an interim storage facility in Lea County, N.M. is “still under […]

Nearly 40 years have passed since the Nuclear Waste Policy Act went into effect, mandating that the U.S. government designate a location to permanently dispose of the nation’s spent nuclear fuel from power plants.  It never happened, as nuke-watchers well know, but this week, an interim waste storage site conceived by the privately owned Interim […]

In a major milestone for the otherwise moribund U.S. spent-fuel-storage scene, one of two proposed commercial interim storage sites got the environmental green light from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week. If licensed, the site in west Texas would be allowed to store up to 5,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel and highly-radioactive Greater-than-Class-C […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is putting together a team to review a financially-troubled Ohio nuclear power plant’s response to several equipment failures and a recent reactor trip, the agency said this week. Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station has experienced four emergency diesel generator failures over the last two years, NRC said in the statement dated Tuesday. […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is officially doing away with a proposed rulemaking that would govern spent fuel reprocessing, according to an agency notice published Thursday. Declining industry interest in spent fuel reprocessing, higher priorities in spent fuel management and “budgetary constraints” were the main drivers in discontinuing the staff rulemaking activity that began in 2013, […]

A federal suit against a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel remains in limbo while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission works through licensing proceedings, according to a Wednesday court filing from the agency. Holtec International’s application for a federal license to build an interim storage facility in Lea County, N.M. is “still under consideration […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing process for two proposed interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel can’t legally move forward without approval from host state governors, a Texas congressman argued Tuesday on the House floor. “The law is very clear … that the governor can disapprove [of an interim storage facility],” said Rep. Henry Cuellar […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is putting together a team to review a financially-troubled Ohio nuclear power plant’s response to several equipment failures and a recent reactor trip, the agency said Tuesday. Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station has experienced four emergency diesel generator failures over the last two years, NRC said in the statement dated Tuesday. The […]

Two proposed commercial interim storage sites run afoul of federal law governing radioactive waste disposal, a cadre of Texas state legislators told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a letter last week. If NRC were to license either Interim Storage Partners’ (ISP) or Holtec International’s proposed interim storage facilities they would violate the Nuclear Waste Policy […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission distorted the state of New Mexico’s arguments against a proposed interim storage facility when it said that a district court didn’t have the authority to rule on a state lawsuit, according to a new court filing. Since the state isn’t looking to challenge a final agency decision under the Hobbs Act […]

The Department of Energy has yet to write New Mexico back after the state sent a letter opposing a proposed commercial interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel within its borders, the state’s senior senator said this week. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) told RadWaste Monitor after a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee meeting Thursday […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission distorted the state of New Mexico’s arguments against a proposed interim storage facility when it said that a district court didn’t have the authority to rule on a state lawsuit, according to a new court filing. Since the state isn’t looking to challenge a final agency decision under the Hobbs Act […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission hopes the two vacant seats on its executive committee won’t be gathering dust for too long, the agency’s head told Congress this week. “I think we work best when we have a full complement,” said NRC chair Christopher Hanson while testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday afternoon. Currently […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could grant licenses to a pair of proposed commercial interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel in the next six months, the commission’s chairman told Congress this week. The NRC should make its final call on Interim Storage Partners’ proposed site in west Texas should in September, Christopher Hanson, the NRC […]

Most of the cash greenlit for the Department of Energy’s nuclear waste activities should go towards a program to designate a federal interim storage facility, the House Appropriations Committee recommended this week in its budget for the 2022 fiscal year. That proposal survived Friday’s three-hour markup of an energy and water bill Friday, after which […]

The executives of a Texas county picked to host an interim storage facility voted to officially oppose the site’s licensing after a widely-attended and sometimes emotional public hearing this week. The Andrews County, Texas Commissioners’ Court voted unanimously Thursday to pen a letter of resolution opposing Interim Storage Partners’ proposed interim storage site, currently undergoing […]

The Texas county slated to host a proposed interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel was scheduled to discuss the issue in a meeting Thursday and, according to one stakeholder, potentially resolve it. The Andrews County, Texas Commissioners’ Court will convene at 3:00 p.m. Central time “for a discussion and possible resolution” regarding Interim Storage […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could grant licenses to a pair of proposed commercial interim storage facilities for spent nuclear fuel in the next six months, the commission’s chairman told Congress Wednesday. The NRC should make its final call on Interim Storage Partners’ proposed site in west Texas should in September, Christopher Hanson, the NRC chair, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission hopes the two vacant seats on its executive committee won’t be gathering dust for too long, the agency’s head told Congress Wednesday. “I think we work best when we have a full complement,” said NRC chair Christopher Hanson while testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Committee Wednesday afternoon. Currently the […]

Christopher Hanson was scheduled to testify Wednesday before a pair of House subcommittees about the Nuclear Regulatory’s 2022 budget request, power plant decommissioning and nuclear waste management. The joint hearing of the House Energy and Commerce energy subcommittee and climate change subcommittee was scheduled to air on the committee’s website at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time. […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has delayed the final environmental review for Holtec’s proposed interim spent fuel storage site in Lea County, N.M., to November from July, the agency said last week. In a letter dated July 2, the commission also said that a separate safety review for the proposed site will also be delayed, to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is putting together a team to look into how the agency currently addresses environmental justice, according to a press release this week. The commission’s new Environmental Justice Review Team has already started “reviewing recent Executive Orders and assessing practices of other federal, state and tribal governments,” NRC said in a Thursday […]

One of the nuclear industry’s most prominent trade groups pressured the Joe Biden administration this week to do something about the dwindling Nuclear Regulatory Commission, as one of four current commissioners finished her term this week and left the agency. It’s important for the five-person NRC to be at full strength so it can “act […]

One of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s four current commissioners sees out her term today, leaving the Joe Biden administration with two seats to fill at the top of the independent regulatory agency. Commissioner Annie Caputo, who was nominated to her three-year term in 2018 under the Donald Trump administration, leaves NRC Wednesday, commission chair Christopher […]