Reactor Licensing & Regulation

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is requesting more information about the Energy Department’s plan for closure of a radioactive waste storage tank farm at the Hanford Site in Washington state. The nuclear regulator will present the request at a DOE public meeting, scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. May 30 in Richland. The information request […]

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is among a growing list of presidential candidates voicing clear opposition to disposal of nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “Trump is proposing to send our nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain,” Sanders tweeted on May 16. “That would be a disaster. We must stop building new nuclear power plants, and […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday announced it would collect $782.5 million in licensee fees for the current federal fiscal 2019 budget year, a slight bump up from the amount proposed earlier in the year. The final fee rule will take effect on July 16, according to a notice in the Federal Register. By […]

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is among a growing list of presidential candidates voicing opposition to disposal of nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “Trump is proposing to send our nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain,” Sanders tweeted on May 16. “That would be a disaster. We must stop building new nuclear power plants, and find […]

The Department of Energy is still waiting on action from Congress that would be necessary to carry out its legal requirement to dispose of the nation’s Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste, a senior official said last week. The agency has largely been in a holding pattern since issuing a November 2017 report to Congress […]

By John Stang The majority of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission believes its updated nuclear power plant safety rules contain measure determined necessary to protect the public. Agency Chairman Kristine Svinicki offered the message in a May 3 letter to Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). She was responding to concerns the lawmakers raised in […]

WASHINGTON — Plans for consolidated interim storage of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors leave questions about the ultimate disposition of that radioactive material once a facility’s federal license expires, former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said Monday. Speaking at a Capitol Hill event on nuclear decommissioning, Jaczko posited a scenario in which […]

The House Appropriations Committee’s draft fiscal 2020 energy and water bill provides no money to resume federal licensing of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Instead, the legislation would provide an unspecified appropriation for initial interim storage operations for spent reactor fuel from commercial nuclear power plants, according to a press release from […]

The Department of Energy is still waiting on action from Congress that would be necessary to carry out its legal requirement to dispose of the nation’s Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste, a senior official said last week. The agency has largely been in a holding pattern since issuing a November 2017 report to Congress […]

WASHINGTON — Plans for consolidated interim storage of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power reactors raise questions about the ultimate disposition of that radioactive material once a facility’s federal license expires, former Nuclear Regulatory Chairman Gregory Jaczko said Monday. Speaking at a Capitol Hill event on nuclear decommissioning, Jaczko posited a scenario in which the […]

The House of Representatives’ fiscal 2020 Energy and Water appropriations bill that contains the Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission budgets will include about 4% more funding than the enacted 2019 bill did, according to spending limits published Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee. The total allocation for the 2020 Energy and Water Development […]

A panel of administrative judges at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday rejected all petitions for an evidentiary hearing to contest Holtec International’s license application for a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. The three-member Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) ruled that only three of six petitioning groups proved they […]

The federal government must be allowed to resume the long-delayed licensing for a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Thursday. In testimony on Capitol Hill, Perry suggested he is not committed solely to one disposal location, but rather to finally ending a decades-long impasse on finding a permanent […]

SHINE Medical Technologies on Thursday broke ground on a production plant for the medical isotope molybdendum-99. The 43,000-square-foot plant in Janesville, Wis., will ultimately house eight accelerator-based manufacturing systems that could meet more than one-third of worldwide need for the isotope, SHINE said in a press release. The company has said it hopes to reach […]

A panel of administrative judges at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday rejected all petitions for evidentiary hearings to contest Holtec International’s license application for a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. The three-member Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ruled that only three of six petitioning groups proved standing to participate […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March spent just $128 of its remaining balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund, according to its latest update to Congress. That left the agency with $407,102 in unspent, unobligated funding for work on licensing a federal repository for disposal of spent nuclear reactor fuel and high-level radioactive waste from […]

The Energy Department has extended the deadline for responses to its small business sources-sought notice for Idaho National Laboratory remediation work by one week, until May 8. The extension is one of several modifications posted on the FedBizOps website since the initial market research notice was posted on April 10. The Energy Department is researching […]

Entergy on Wednesday reported growth in earnings on both an as-reported and adjusted basis in the first quarter of 2019 as it further winds down its merchant nuclear power business. As-reported earnings came in at $255 million, or $1.32 per share, up from $133 million, or $0.73 per share, in the same quarter of 2018. […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has begun the process of streamlining the environmental reviews it conducts in ruling on license applications. The industry regulator discussed the outlines of its plan in a recent solicitation for a consultant who will support the improvement proceeding. “The main objective of this contract is to obtain technical assistance in […]

The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) this week confirmed a 2018 finding that exposure to contaminants from former radioactive waste storage near St. Louis, Mo., could have heightened the risk for various cancers among residents of the area. The ATSDR on Tuesday issued its final report on cancer risks near Coldwater […]

Stephen Burns retired Tuesday after nearly five years as a member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, including more than two years as chairman. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) noted Burns’ retirement during a Senate Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee hearing on the NRC budget plan for fiscal 2020. The agency then confirmed his departure, […]

Entergy on Wednesday reported growth in earnings on both an as-reported and adjusted basis in the first quarter of 2019 as it further winds down its merchant nuclear power business. As-reported earnings came in at $255 million, or $1.32 per share, up from $133 million, or $0.73 per share, in the same quarter of 2018. […]

Texas must have a say in approval of disposal of Greater-Than-Class C (GTCC) low-level radioactive waste in the state, Gov. Greg Abbott said in an April 26 letter to Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Kristine Svinicki. Proceedings underway at both federal agencies could ultimately open the door for disposal of […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans to hire a consultant to provide guidance on streamlining its environmental reviews of license applications. “The main objective of this contract is to obtain technical assistance in assessing the NRC’s environmental review process and providing recommendations for improving the environmental review process at the NRC,” the agency said in […]

Vermont on April 10 formally applied to become the 39th agreement state to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. If the application is approved, per the terms of the 1954 Atomic Energy Act, Vermont would assume authority from the federal agency for licensing and regulation of radioactive byproduct materials, source materials, and limited amounts of special […]

Vermont on April 10 formally applied to become the 39th agreement state to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. If the application is approved, Vermont would assume authority from the federal agency for licensing and regulation of byproduct materials, source materials, and limited amounts of special nuclear materials. That is expected to cover 36 licenses in […]

The five members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission unanimously terminated a decade-long, multimillion-dollar program to update federal regulations on material control and accounting (MC&A) of special nuclear materials. “The Commission has disapproved the draft final rule,” Annette Vietti-Cook, secretary of the commission, wrote in an April 3 memorandum to NRC Executive Director for Operations Margaret […]

Watchers of the Department of Energy’s defense nuclear waste and weapons budgets will endure two more weeks of added uncertainty about those programs after Congress blew town for an extended spring break without making progress on a deal to avert automatic spending cuts that will kick in on Oct. 1. The House did make an […]

An April 11 article in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing should have said that: Fluor Idaho holds the five-year, $1.6 billion Idaho Cleanup Project contract, which runs through May 2021; and Spectra Tech has a five-year, $41 million contract for work at Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensed facilities at Idaho National Laboratories, through March 2021.

The five members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission unanimously terminated a decade-long program to update federal regulations on material control and accounting (MC&A) of special nuclear materials. “The Commission has disapproved the draft final rule,” Annette Vietti-Cook, secretary of the commission, wrote in an April 3 memorandum to NRC Executive Director for Operations Margaret […]