Reactor Licensing & Regulation

An oil company opposing the licensing of an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in west Texas won’t get a private meeting with the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency said last week. Since Fasken Oil and Ranch, Ltd. is involved in ongoing commission proceedings, it would sacrifice the agency’s impartiality for […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said Thursday spent nuclear fuel policy meetings are happening inside the Department of Energy but it is too early to spell out what the administration of President Joe Biden will pursue with Nevada’s stalled Yucca Mountain project off the table. Granholm’s remarks came in response to a reporter’s question at […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week tapped its deputy chief of nuclear security to head up the office responsible for enforcing agency regulations, the agency announced this week. Mark Lombard, who had been in second-in-command at NRC’s Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response, will take over at the commission’s Office of Enforcement on June […]

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said Thursday spent nuclear fuel policy meetings are happening inside the Department of Energy but it is too early to spell out what the administration of President Joe Biden will pursue with Nevada’s stalled Yucca Mountain project off the table. Granholm’s remarks came in response to a reporter’s question at […]

An oil company opposing the licensing of an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in west Texas won’t get a private meeting with the chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the agency said last week. Since Fasken Oil and Ranch, Ltd. is involved in ongoing commission proceedings, it would sacrifice the agency’s impartiality for […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission won’t reverse its decision to deny requests for a public hearing on the sale of Indian Point Energy, the agency’s chairman told the leader of the U.S. Senate recently. NRC Chair Christopher Hanson “does not have the authority to unilaterally modify” the full commission’s ruling, he wrote in a March 25 […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission won’t reverse its decision to deny requests for a public hearing on the sale of Indian Point Energy, the agency’s chairman told the leader of the U.S. Senate last week. NRC Chair Christopher Hanson “does not have the authority to unilaterally modify” the full commission’s ruling, he wrote in a March […]

A federal safety review for a proposed interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel won’t be ready by the previously scheduled date, according to a recent document published by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The safety evaluation report for Holtec International’s proposed consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) was originally supposed to be finished in May but […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is independent from the Biden administration’s energy goals, but that shouldn’t “be an impediment to innovation and deployment,” the agency’s chairman said at an industry summit this week. The NRC’s regulatory independence is a critical element of ensuring public trust, Christopher Hanson said Tuesday during his opening remarks to the U.S. […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the companies involved in the sale of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station have a little over three weeks to respond to an environmental group’s request to hold off on the transaction, according to an agency filing. The NRC, the FirstEnergy companies and the EnergySolutions subsidiary responsible for decommissioning the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is independent from the Biden administration’s energy goals, but that shouldn’t “be an impediment to innovation and deployment,” the agency’s chairman said at an industry summit Tuesday. The NRC’s regulatory independence is a critical element of ensuring public trust, Christopher Hanson said during his opening remarks to the U.S. Nuclear Industry […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the companies involved in the sale of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station have a little over three weeks to respond to an environmental group’s request to hold off on the transaction, according to an agency filing. The NRC, the FirstEnergy companies and the EnergySolutions subsidiary responsible for decommissioning the […]

An environmental watchdog group that previously raised concerns about environmental law violations in the sale of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station formally asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week to pump the brakes on the transaction, according to new documents. In a motion dated Monday, Three Mile Island Alert (TMIA) argued that until the […]

The former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is joining the University of Michigan as an adjunct professor, according to a press release. The university’s Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Science (NERS) department announced that Kristine Svinicki would join the faculty in a March 8 statement. Svinicki will help to “define the new directions for twenty-first-century […]

The final version of the next volume in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s long-awaited reactor decommissioning guidance is expected to be published “sometime next year,” an agency official said this week. The NRC’s second of three rulemakings for decommissioning nuclear reactors is currently in the public comments phase, said Cynthia Barr, a senior analyst at the […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff want to cancel a proposed rulemaking for spent fuel reprocessing, citing lack of interest and stakeholder concerns, according to a recent policy issue. NRC operations director Margaret Doane submitted the March 5 commission request to discontinue the rulemaking, which was introduced in 2013 and would have laid groundwork to help companies […]

An environmental watchdog group that previously raised concerns about environmental law violations in the sale of Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station is now formally asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to pump the brakes on the transaction, according to new documents. In a motion dated Monday, Three Mile Island Alert (TMIA) argued that until the […]

The final version of the next volume in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s long-awaited reactor decommissioning guidance is expected to be published “sometime next year,” an agency official said Monday. The NRC’s second of three rulemakings for decommissioning nuclear reactors is currently in the public comments phase, said Cynthia Barr, a senior analyst at the agency’s […]

The former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission joined the University of Michigan as an adjunct professor, according to a press release. The university’s Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Science (NERS) department announced that Kristine Svinicki joined the faculty in a March 8 statement. Svinicki will help to “define the new directions for twenty-first-century nuclear engineering” […]

The acting director of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s reactor regulation office will become the official head of the program, the agency announced this week. Andrea Veil, who had been serving as interim head of the Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) office since former director Ho Nieh’s departure in January, was selected to take on the position […]

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission study recommending updates for disposal of very low-level radioactive waste is scheduled to wrap up this spring, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission staffer said this week. The commission’s very low-level waste (VLLW) scoping study is supposed to finish up in April, Stephen Koenick, NRC low-level waste project chief, said Wednesday in a […]

For newly minted Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair Christopher Hanson, it’s good to be back in the office.  “I’m here a couple of days, mostly because I just have to get out of my house,” Hanson told RadWaste Monitor this week from NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md. “I’ve got a dog and two teenagers at home […]

Christopher Hanson, the newly minted chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has seen nuclear energy from just about every angle the federal government looks at it. By the time he was sworn in as an NRC commissioner in June 2020, Hanson had done a five-year stint as Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) energy and water staffer […]

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission study recommending updates for disposal of very low-level radioactive waste is scheduled to wrap up this spring, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission staffer said this week. The commission’s very low-level waste (VLLW) scoping study is supposed to finish up in April, Stephen Koenick, NRC low-level waste project chief, said Wednesday in a […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission resumed anti-terrorism exercises at nuclear power plants with additional COVID-19 guidelines in February, the agency said this week. Force-on-force inspections started up again last month, NRC spokesperson David McIntyre told RadWaste Monitor in an email Monday. The agency had previously said in a February webinar with industry that exercises would resume […]

The interstate agency overseeing the Susquehanna River basin plans to review water usage at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear power plant after an environmental watchdog alleged that the site was violating the law, the agency’s executive director said this week. Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) chief Andrew Dehoff told RadWaste Monitor in an email Wednesday […]

Institutions formed in the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster “serve to strengthen” the entire nuclear industry, the former chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said at an international nuclear energy commission panel this week. At the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) panel on Wednesday, George W. Bush-era NRC head Richard Meserve said that new institutions formed […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission resumed anti-terrorism exercises at nuclear power plants with additional COVID-19 guidelines in February, the agency said. Force-on-force inspections started up again last month, NRC spokesperson David McIntyre told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing in an email Monday. The agency had previously said in a February webinar with industry that exercises would resume […]

The trade group for the nuclear industry doubled down on a legal argument that the Nuclear Regulatory’s Commission’s 2019 interpretation of very low-level waste disposal guidelines illegally burdened licensees and should be reversed, according to a recent filing with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Moreover, NRC’s 2019 interpretation is not merely repetition of established […]

The company in charge of decommissioning Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station submitted a proposal to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requesting an amendment to fuel storage safety guidelines that would allow them to complete transferring spent fuel to dry storage by November, according to a filing published this week. Nuclear services provider Holtec International, which is […]