Reactor Licensing & Regulation

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday provided a large swath of its licensees with an overview of options for relief from federal nuclear safety rules as they strive to sustain operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The agency addressed a letter to licensees authorized to hold byproduct, source, and special nuclear materials, excluding operating commercial nuclear […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday announced receipt of its first request from a nuclear power plant for an exception to the federal limits for work hours during the COVID-19 crisis. Exelon Generation filed the request Thursday for its two-reactor Limerick Generating Station in Montgomery County, Pa. “By implementing the alternate work hour controls, LGS […]

By John Stang The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is allowing nuclear power plants to request exemptions for certain limits on work hours for personnel to help ensure continuity of operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. “A sudden and potentially long-term reduction in available facility staffing, such as that which may result due to the COVID-19 (public health […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was urged Monday to give the public more time to comment on two controversial proceedings after the COVID-19 crisis has passed. Currently, stakeholders have a matter of weeks to provide input on a key environmental document in federal licensing of a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in New Mexico, as […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has signed off on the transfer of the license for the retired Crystal River nuclear power plant in Florida, a key step toward its planned decommissioning within seven years. The reactor license now passes from property owner Duke Energy to decommissioning contractor ADP CR3 – a subsidiary of Accelerated Decommissioning Partners […]

The top members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Monday asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to delay collecting charges and fees from nuclear licensees for no less than 90 days due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member Tom Carper (D-Del.), along with Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.), asked […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was urged Monday to extend consideration of updating its rules on disposal of very low-level radioactive waste (VLLW) in landfills until the COVID-19 crisis has passed, or to just end the proceeding altogether. Extending the comment period on the proposal for up to six months past the end of the pandemic […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is allowing nuclear power plants to request exemptions from some staffing requirements to help ensure continuity of operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. “A sudden and potentially long-term reduction in available facility staffing, such as that which may result due to the COVID-19 (public health emergency), was not considered during the rulemaking […]

The Department of Energy on Thursday expressed confidence in the strength of the nation’s nuclear power fleet, even as a leading industry group has asked the Trump administration to provide economic relief in the face of potential damage from the spreading COVID-19 pandemic. “Rest assured that our fleet of operating reactors and the nuclear energy […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a March 30 “virtual meeting” to discuss the results of its latest performance assessment for URENCO USA’s uranium enrichment plant in Eunice, N.M. The assessment period covered the entirety of 2018 and 2019. Agency staff determined URENCO did not need to make improvements in five operational spheres: safety operations, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a March 30 “virtual meeting” to discuss the results of its latest performance assessment for URENCO USA’s commercial uranium enrichment plant in Eunice, N.M. The assessment period covered the entirety of 2018 and 2019. Agency staff determined URENCO did not need to make improvements in five operational areas: safety […]

Energy Harbor Corp. on March 13 said it had reversed its decision to retire the two reactors at its Beaver Valley Power Station in Pennsylvania. The announcement came just weeks after the former FirstEnergy Solutions emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a new name and no longer owned by FirstEnergy Corp. Management at the Akron, […]

A nuclear industry organization this week gave the Nuclear Regulatory Commission higher marks for transparency in making the case for its fees for the current 2020 federal fiscal year. In the proposed fee schedule issued in February, the NRC said it would require $728.5 million in fees for the 12-month period ending Sept. 30. That […]

A “small number” of Nuclear Regulatory Commission employees are in self-imposed isolation after attending an event in which other participants subsquently tested positive for infection by the 2019 novel coronavirus, the agency said Friday. “To our knowledge, all of those employees are asymptomatic; however, out of an abundance of caution these employees have elected to […]

PHOENIX – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering merging two long-running efforts to update federal regulations on disposal of radioactive waste, a senior official said here Monday. Agency staff is currently determining the paths forward for both a potential rulemaking on Greater-Than-Class C Waste and the continuing Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Rulemaking, according to Patricia […]

A working group of staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recommended downshifting the standard schedule for inspections of spent reactor fuel storage pads from roughly every two years to three years. That was the No. 1 recommendation in the draft final version of Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) Inspection Enhancement Initiative, issued on […]

Staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday preliminarily recommended licensing a facility in New Mexico for temporary storage of spent fuel from U.S. nuclear power plants. The tentative support is provided in the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for Holtec International’s planned consolidated interim storage facility (CISF) in Lea County, in the state’s southeast. […]

Staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday preliminarily recommended licensing a facility in New Mexico for temporary storage of spent fuel from U.S. nuclear power plants. The tentative support is provided in the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for Holtec International’s consolidated interim storage facility in Lea County, in the state’s southeast. “Based on […]

PHOENIX – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is considering merging two long-running efforts to update federal regulations on disposal of radioactive waste, a senior official said here Monday. Agency staff is currently determining the paths forward for both a potential rulemaking on Greater-Than-Class C Waste and the continuing Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Rulemaking, according to Patricia […]

A working group of staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recommended downshifting the standard schedule for inspections of spent reactor fuel storage pads from roughly every two years to three years. That was the No. 1 recommendation in the draft final version of Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) Inspection Enhancement Initiative, issued Friday. […]

By John Stang The Nuclear Regulatory Commission failed to adequately review questionable safety findings from one of its scientists regarding an underground gas line that passes through the property of the Indian Point Energy Center nuclear power plant in upstate New York, according to the agency’s inspector general. A New York senator voiced anger at […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday announced the cancellation of a major conference set to begin Tuesday just outside of Washington, D.C., as participants dropped out in the face of the spreading coronavirus outbreak. “In recent days, a number of organizations and presenters have changed their attendance plans, with indications that others would reach similar […]

By John Stang The head of a suburban Seattle venture told a House of Representatives subcommittee Tuesday that a new type of nuclear power reactor now in development would dramatically cut the amount of spent fuel generated in operations. TerraPower, of Bellevue, Wash., is working on a breed-and-burn reactor, which would use depleted uranium — […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday it would proceed with a major conference next week, even as other sizable events are being canceled as cases of coronavirus disease increase globally. There were more than 2,200 registrants as of Monday for the agency’s Regulatory Information Conference, scheduled for March 10-12 in North Bethesda, Md., according to […]

The Department of Energy will seek neither to license a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, nor a federal facility for temporary centralized storage of the radioactive material, Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said Thursday. His comments come after Brouillette’s predecessor, Rick Perry, said last fall the agency also has no legal authorization […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday it will need to collect $728.5 million in fees to fund its operations for the current federal budget year. That figure meets the agency’s mandate under the 1990 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act to recover 90% of its yearly funding from licensee and service fees, according to a Federal Register […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday it will need to collect $728.5 million in fees to fund its operations for the current federal budget year. That proposed fee take meets the agency’s mandate under the 1990 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act to recover 90% of its yearly funding from fees, according to a Federal Register notice […]

By John Stang The New York state Attorney General’s Office and three other parties this week filed petitions for hearings with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the proposed license transfer and sale of the Indian Point Energy Center. Along with the Attorney General’s Office, the petitioners are: jointly the town of Cortlandt, village of Buchanan, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is giving the state of South Carolina more time to submit new data and input on the license renewal of Westinghouse Electric’s Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility. The formal 30-day comment period on the federal agency’s draft environmental assessment for the renewal application ended on Nov. 27, 2019. On Jan. 13, the […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is giving the state of South Carolina more time to submit new data and input on the license renewal of Westinghouse Electric’s Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility. The formal 30-day comment period on the federal agency’s draft environmental assessment for the renewal application ended on Nov. 27, 2019. On Jan. 13, […]