Reactor Licensing & Regulation

The Fukushima subcommittee to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards is set to meet Wednesday to discuss a draft final rulemaking package for mitigation of beyond-design-basis events at American reactors. Beyond-design-basis events include earthquakes and flooding like those experienced at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011. The proposed rulemaking is intended to strengthen protections […]

Entergy had to shut down one of three cooling systems at its beleaguered Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station on Monday after the plant experienced excessive vibrations within the system, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday. The power provider identified the issue during a required quarterly test at the 44-year-old Massachusetts facility, which the NRC in 2015 […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is requesting additional information from power company Entergy concerning its application to transfer the license of its James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant to Exelon as part of a $110 million deal to sell the facility. The regulator wants to ensure the facility maintains proper staffing levels over the course of […]

Power company Exelon plans to produce molybdenum-99 at its Byron Nuclear Generating Station in Illinois, potentially submitting a license amendment request to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in early 2017. Mo-99 is an isotope that decays into technetium-99m, which is used in imaging procedures for cancer, heart disease, and bone and kidney disease. The Western Hemisphere […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) assured Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) it is working to boost the security and tracking of radioactive materials, in a Nov. 2 letter made public Wednesday in response to Schumer’s October request that the agency suspend approval of Category 3 radioactive material licenses. Schumer made his request early last month in […]

Power company Exelon plans to produce molybdenum-99 at its Byron Nuclear Generating Station in Illinois, potentially submitting a license amendment request to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in early 2017. Mo-99 is an isotope that decays into technetium-99m, which is used in imaging procedures for cancer, heart disease, and bone and kidney disease. The Western Hemisphere no […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) assured Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) it is working to boost the security and tracking of radioactive materials, in a Nov. 2 letter made public Wednesday in response to Schumer’s October request that the agency suspend approval of Category 3 radioactive material licenses. Schumer made his request early last month in […]

Entergy had to shut down one of three cooling systems at its beleaguered Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station on Monday after the plant experienced excessive vibrations within the system, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Tuesday. The power provider identified the issue during a required quarterly test at the 44-year-old Massachusetts facility, which the NRC in 2015 downgraded to Column […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) for the radioisotope production facility that Northwest Medical Isotopes plans to build in Columbia, Mo. Northwest has submitted construction application to the NRC to build a $70 million, privately funded facility at the Discovery Ridge research park at the University of Missouri Research […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is requesting additional information from power company Entergy concerning its application to transfer the license of its James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant to Exelon as part of a $110 million deal to sell the facility. The regulator is seeking to ensure proper staffing levels are maintained over the course of […]

The Washington state Department of Ecology has fined Perma-Fix Northwest $36,400 for the improper handling of some mixed dangerous and radioactive waste apparently left by the last owner of the company’s plant in Richland. Perma-Fix purchased the facility from Pacific EcoSolutions in 2007. The plant treats, size reduces, and packages low-level radioactive and mixed waste […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has identified an apparent regulatory violation at the BWXT Nuclear Operations Group (NOG) Inc. facility in Lynchburg, Va. The incident occurred June 9 at BWXT’s Mount Athos Road manufacturing facility near Lynchburg, where the company found that an in-plant water line connection to a uranium recycling process had not been properly reviewed […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is set to meet Nov. 15 with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to discuss a low to moderate safety issue identified earlier this year, concerning an emergency cooling system, at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California. Located about 12 miles southwest of San Luis Obispo, Diablo Canyon is the last […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has identified an apparent violation at the BWXT Nuclear Operations Group (NOG), Inc., facility in Lynchburg, Va. According to an NRC letter to BWXT on Thursday, the apparent violation is associated with “a failure to identify a high consequence accident sequence related to potential backflow of uranium bearing solution to a […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday denied the state of Vermont’s request for a hearing concerning Entergy’s use of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant’s decommissioning trust fund, ruling that the utility can use money from the account for spent fuel management expenses. Vermont filed a hearing request in April with the NRC, challenging Entergy’s license […]

Four nongovernmental groups are calling on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to cancel its review of Waste Control Specialists’ application to build and operate a consolidated interim storage facility for nuclear waste in West Texas. Beyond Nuclear, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Public Citizen, and the SEED Coalition co-authored a letter to the NRC on Wednesday, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects to reach a decision on Entergy’s request to transfer the operating license for the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York state to fellow utility Exelon by March, the agency said in a recent letter to Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.). Entergy in August agreed to sell the plant to Exelon […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is moving forward with an environmental impact review of Waste Control Specialists’ plan to build and operate a 40,000-metric-ton consolidated interim nuclear waste storage facility in West Texas, a senior NRC official told the agency’s commissioners Tuesday. The NRC has yet to accept the overall license application, however, as it continues […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this month issued a license for export of weapon-grade uranium to France to refuel a research reactor. The agency is considering several similar license applications from the Department of Energy’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Each draws scrutiny from nongovernmental nonproliferation advocates who fear terrorists could obtain the highly enriched […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said last weekend that efforts are underway to address concerns over lax security measures for some of its radioactive source licensees. In an Oct. 2 letter to NRC Chairman Stephen Burns, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for the regulator to suspend its approval of Category 3 radioactive material licenses in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is moving forward with environmental impact review of Waste Control Specialists’ plan to build and operate a 40,000-metric-ton consolidated interim nuclear waste storage facility in West Texas, a senior NRC official told the commission Tuesday. The agency has yet to accept the overall license application, however, as it continues collecting supplemental information from […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said over the weekend that efforts are under way to address concerns over lax security measures for some of its radioactive source licensees. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has asked NRC Chairman Stephen Burns for a suspension of Category 3 radioactive material licenses in light of concerns highlighted recently by the […]

Citing 600 jobs and $500 million in regional economic activity annually, the Oswego County, N.Y., Industrial Development Agency sent a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday in support of power provider Entergy’s planned sale of its James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant to Exelon. The agency, a public benefit corporation established in 1973, also cited […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a meeting Thursday to discuss a reversion to the license termination plan for the shuttered La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor power plant in Wisconsin before it is submitted to NRC staff. La Crosse closed in 1987 and has been in SAFSTOR status since 1991, aside from a period of active […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday accepted NextEra Energy Resources’ license amendment request as the company addresses concrete degradation issues, known as alkali-silica reaction (ASR), that have long plagued the Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire. The NRC can now conduct a detailed technical review of the application. Agency spokesman Neil Sheehan stated by email […]

A watchdog group fired back at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s staff on Tuesday, saying it would be wrong for the regulator to deny a hearing over potentially relaxing post-Fukushima safety rules at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. NRC’s staff last week recommended the commission deny Pilgrim Watch and seven other petitioners’ request for […]

Consumer rights group Public Citizen is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to reject Entergy’s application to sell its James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant to fellow power provider Exelon, arguing that the utilities failed to address the impact the $110 million deal would have on New York state’s power market. If the deal […]

U.S. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Inspector General’s Office said in a new report the agency has an opportunity to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) oversight program through centralizing regulatory guidance documents. Guidance documents aid NRC licensees and applicants in implementing specific regulations, NRC staff techniques for evaluating specific problems […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has concluded that the contractor for the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility project in South Carolina committed two violations involving structural welding. A Sept. 28 letter from the NRC to CB&I AREVA MOX Services said the base civil penalty of $35,000 would be waived “to encourage prompt and comprehensive […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has concluded that the contractor for the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility project in South Carolina committed two violations involving structural welding. A Sept. 28 letter from the NRC to CB&I AREVA MOX Services said the base civil penalty of $35,000 would be waived “to encourage prompt and comprehensive […]