Reactor Licensing & Regulation

An anti-nuclear advocate and adviser to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission warned officials on Tuesday not to make the same mistake as the Japanese in letting industry overpower the regulator. A Japanese parliamentary panel in 2012 found that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster the year before was profoundly man-made and a result of “regulatory […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has denied two petitions from 34 environmental groups, which claim the regulator’s “piecemeal” approach to its continued storage rule hides the environmental significance of certain regulations on spent fuel storage and disposal at nuclear power plants. The continued storage rule, formerly known as the waste confidence rule, includes a sweeping, generic […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials on Wednesday defined the agency’s role in the Department of Energy’s consent-based siting effort for nuclear waste storage, saying the best approach is to monitor the effort’s progress rather than get involved in the direction of the program NRC Spent Fuel Storage and Transportation Director Mark Lombard and Yucca Mountain Directorate chief James […]

An anti-nuclear advocate and adviser to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission warned officials on Tuesday not to make the same mistake as the Japanese in letting industry overpower the regulator. A Japanese parliamentary panel in 2012 found that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster the year before was profoundly man-made and a result of “regulatory […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects this week to release details from the second of three inspections at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, as part of the regulator’s increased oversight at the Massachusetts plant. The NRC in September downgraded its safety rating for Pilgrim following a series of unplanned shutdowns and safety relief valve issues at […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff and nuclear industry representatives are set next week to brief the NRC commissioners on the progress of the Japan Lessons Learned initiative, which is the regulator’s response to the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster. NRC has scheduled the briefing for 9 a.m. May 17 in the Commissioners’ Conference Room at agency headquarters […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued its final supplement to the Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain environmental impact statement (EIS) late Thursday, finding the impact to groundwater from any potential spent nuclear fuel leaks and high-level nuclear waste at the planned nuclear waste repository in Nevada would be “small.” DOE submitted its final EIS in 2002, and […]

When asked Thursday whether he thinks the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is over-regulating, and thus effectively driving nuclear power plants out of business, commission Chairman Stephen Burns said he likes where the regulator stands in comparison to the international community’s response to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster. The NRC is set this year to complete the bulk of […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued its final supplement to the Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain environmental impact statement (EIS) late Thursday, finding the impact to groundwater from any potential spent nuclear fuel leaks and high-level nuclear waste at the planned nuclear waste repository in Nevada would be “small.” DOE submitted its final EIS in 2002, and […]

Waste Control Specialists on Thursday submitted its license application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build and operate a consolidated interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel in West Texas. The facility, which would carry a 40-year license and have capacity to store 40,000 metric tons of waste, would be the first of its kind in the United […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday approved its $37.4 billion energy and water spending bill for fiscal 2017, which denies the Department of Energy any funding for its consent-based siting effort for nuclear waste storage. The spending bill also called for the resumption of licensing a national repository planned at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, according […]

House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee Chairman John Shimkus (R-Ill.) laid into Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Stephen Burns on Wednesday, demanding to know why his agency did not request any funding in fiscal 2017 for Yucca Mountain licensing activities. “I would be remiss if I didn’t express my dissatisfaction that once more the commission failed […]

The Republican-led House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee has included in its fiscal 2017 spending bill language that denies the Department of Energy any funding for its consent-based siting effort for nuclear waste storage, while calling for the resumption of licensing a national repository planned at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, according to the bill report […]

The 10-mile emergency planning zone at the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant will shrink to within the site’s boundaries this week through a Nuclear Regulatory Commission-granted safety exemption. The NRC in December granted the standard safety requirement exemption at the plant, which ceased operations in 2014, reasoning that closed facilities pose lower safety risks than operating […]

A onetime employee of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy on Monday received an 18-month prison sentence for an attempted 2015 “spear-phishing” strike against DOE email accounts located at several National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites, the Department of Justice said. The sentence came just over two months after Charles Harvey Eccleston, 62, pleaded guilty […]

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials are set to meet with representatives from International Isotopes Inc. on May 3 to discuss four apparent operational violations stemming from an incident in which a worker was accidentally exposed to radiation at the isotope manufacturer’s Idaho facility in August. According to an NRC report, an employee at the Idaho […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Wednesday approved 150 staff recommendations for reducing the agency’s expenses and staffing workloads, which will reportedly result in about $40 million in savings over the next year. The reductions ranged in savings from $1 million to $1.3 million and encompassed cost reductions in everything from information technology service contracts to lowering […]

House and Senate fiscal 2017 energy and water appropriations bills released this week include similar funding requests for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The House version calls for $936.1 million in NRC funding. The agency recovers about 90 percent of its budget from license fees, so the net appropriation is $149.3 million. Meanwhile, the Senate billl calls for $939 […]

While the fiscal 2017 House Energy and Water Appropriations Bill proposes $170 million for U.S. nuclear waste activities, including $20 million for Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing of the Yucca Mountain storage site, the Senate version  does not include any funding for the national repository project. The House spending bill, released on Tuesday, calls for $150 million to carry […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials are set to meet with representatives from International Isotopes Inc. on May 3 to discuss four apparent operational violations stemming from an incident in which a worker was accidentally exposed to radiation at the isotope manufacturer’s Idaho facility in August. According to an NRC report, an employee at the Idaho Falls facility […]

A one-time employee of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Department of Energy on Monday received an 18-month prison sentence for an attempted 2015 “spear-phishing” strike against DOE email accounts, the Department of Justice said. The sentence came just over two months after Charles Harvey Eccleston, 62, pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington, D.C., to attempted unauthorized access […]

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Wednesday charged that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not done enough to improve American nuclear power plants while implementing lessons learned from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi facility disaster in Japan. During a hearing on the commission’s fiscal 2017 budget plan, Boxer listed a […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday began its second round of inspections at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station associated with increased oversight at the Massachusetts plant. The commission downgraded Pilgrim’s safety rating in September after a series of unplanned shutdowns and safety relief valve issues, moving the plant into Column 4 of the NRC Action […]

Senate Environment and Public Works Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) on Wednesday charged that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not done enough to improve American nuclear power plants while implementing lessons learned from the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi facility disaster in Japan. During a hearing on the commission’s fiscal 2017 budget plan, Boxer listed a number of NRC decisions […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has denied a petitioner’s request that the regulator inspect the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant and the Kewaunee Power Station to determine if issues with Belgian nuclear power plants could have implications in the U.S. Petitioner Michael Mulligan spoke with NRC’s petition review board in May 2015 concerning several thousand cracks […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday began its second round of inspections at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station associated with increased oversight at the Massachusetts plant. The commission downgraded Pilgrim’s safety rating in September as a result of unplanned shutdowns and safety relief valve issues, moving the plant into Column 4 of the NRC Action […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Kristine Svinicki said Tuesday the agency needs to be honest with itself as it works through Project Aim 2020 and avoid using euphemisms and pulling punches. Initiated in 2014, Project Aim is NRC’s attempt to re-evaluate and reduce its staffing and workload to become a more efficient organization. The project includes reducing […]

International Isotopes Inc. recorded a net loss of $1.8 million in 2015, compared to a loss of $1.5 million in 2014, according to the latest earnings report from the company, which attributed the net-loss increase to a boost in research and development spending on new pharmaceutical products. The Monday earnings report shows the company had […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Kristine Svinicki said Tuesday the agency needs to be honest with itself as it works through Project Aim 2020 and avoid using euphemisms and pulling punches. Initiated in 2014, Project Aim is NRC’s attempt to re-evaluate and reduce its staffing and workload to become a more efficient organization. The project includes reducing […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has about $1.7 million in remaining unobligated funds from the Nuclear Waste Fund, according to the agency’s most recent numbers. This money represents NRC funding for the license application review of the national repository planned at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The numbers were included in a March 17 letter to House […]