Reactor Licensing & Regulation

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 11/13/2015 Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Stephen Burns said Monday that his office is learning from experience and listening to new ideas as it works toward a 2019 rulemaking intended to streamline and improve the decommissioning process. For the rulemaking, NRC staff has said it will focus on a range of issues, […]

RW Monitor 11/13/2015   IN THE INDUSTRY The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a public meeting concerning the August uranium hexafluoride leak at the Honeywell uranium conversion plant in Illinois. The focus of the meeting, set for Nov. 19 in Metropolis, will be the commission’s recent inspection at the property. The leak occurred Aug. 1 […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a public meeting concerning the August uranium hexafluoride leak at the Honeywell Metropolis Works uranium conversion plant in Illinois. The focus of the meeting, set for Nov. 19 in Metropolis, will be the commission’s results from its probe of the event.   The leak occurred Aug. 1 during maintenance […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Stephen Burns said yesterday that his office expects a significant amount of decommissioning work in the coming years, as evidenced by the shutdown of the Pilgrim nuclear power plant, the potential shutdown at Vermont Yankee, and the shuttering of more than a dozen other plants in the past decade.   Burns’ […]

Karl Herchenroeder RW Monitor 11/6/2015 The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week completed its quarterly inspection at Entergy’s shuttered Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant without identifying any “findings of safety significance.” Entergy shut the plant down at the end of 2014 after 42 years in operation and is now preparing the facility for SAFSTOR. NRC […]

Brian Bradley WC Monitor 10/23/2015 The Energy Department has chosen Spectra Tech, among six total bidders, for a $31.6 million contract to manage Nuclear Regulatory Commission-regulated spent nuclear fuel storage facilities and licenses for four to five years, according to an announcement this week from DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. The contract will encompass management […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued yesterday its environmental impact statement for the SHINE Medical planned medical isotope facility in Janesville, Wis. The NRC Staff recommended “that a construction permit be issued to SHINE, unless safety issues mandate otherwise,” according to a release. The NRC still needs to look at the technical construction plans, but according […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/16/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has agreed to table for five years a proposed rulemaking on security requirements for facilities storing spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, according to a staff requirements memorandum released last week. The NRC had initiated the rulemaking to apply “radiological dose-based regulatory approach to […]

Brian Bradley RW Monitor 10/16/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that a “more than minor” violation of NRC requirements occurred during an Aug. 1 uranium hexafluoride (UF6) release at Honeywell’s Metropolis Works uranium conversion plant related to a valve installed during maintenance, according to a recently completed inspection report of the incident. The NRC ranks […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that a “more than minor” violation of NRC requirements occurred during an Aug. 1 uranium hexafluoride (UF6) release at Honeywell’s Metropolis Works uranium conversion plant related to a valve installed during maintenance, according to a recently completed inspection report of the incident, which the commission provided Weapons Complex Morning Briefing […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has agreed to table for five years a proposed rulemaking on security requirements for facilities storing spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste, according to a Staff Requirements Memorandum released last week. The NRC had originally initiated the rulemaking to apply “radiological dose-based regulatory approach to all independent spent fuel storage […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/9/2015 Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Ranking Member Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) this week renewed her attacks on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s exemptions to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station’s emergency preparedness requirements. Boxer criticized the commission during a committee NRC oversight hearing for reducing the regulations at the shuttered […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/9/2015 CHARLOTTE, N.C.— Industry and state officials this week called for changes to the 60-year time frame utilities are granted under the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s SAFSTOR reactor decommissioning option.  With a slew of utilities announcing the premature shutdown of some reactors in recent years, many in the cleanup community anticipated […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/9/2015 After over 25 years of government service,  Larry Camper, director of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste Programs, retired last week. Under Camper’s direction the NRC office has undertaken many low-level radioactive waste rulemakings, including an update to the 10.CFR.61 rulemaking, the issuance of […]

Alissa Tabirian NS&D Monitor 10/2/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced last Friday it is inspecting BWX Technologies’ (BWXT) Lynchburg, Va., fuel facility following the discovery of a criticality safety incident. The NRC is investigating “the circumstances surrounding the discovery that workers may have exceeded controls for criticality safety in a production line glovebox,” the […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 10/2/2015 A commissioner with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday pondered to whether the body should add transuranic waste to the current 10.CFR.61 rulemaking changes. Commissioner Jeffrey Baran during a NRC hearing on the agency’s low-level radioactive waste business line inquired as to whether the commission would be more prudent […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday announced changes to key senior management positons. According to an NRC release, the highest-level changes will involve: Deputy Executive Director for Material, Waste, Research, State, Tribal, and Compliance Programs Mike Weber becoming director of the Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research; Deputy Director for Engineering in the Office of Nuclear Reactor […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is inspecting BWX Technologies’ (BWXT) Lynchburg, Va. fuel facility following the discovery of a criticality safety incident, the NRC announced last Friday. The NRC is investigating “the circumstances surrounding the discovery that workers may have exceeded controls for criticality safety in a production line glovebox,” the announcement says. The safety controls are […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s special inspection report regarding a uranium hexafluoride leak at the Honeywell Metropolis Works in Illinois is expected to be completed by mid-October, a NRC spokesperson said yesterday. The uranium ore conversion facility returned to full operations last month following the company investigation into the leak that occurred earlier in August. The […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission officially extended the public comment period for the draft supplemental environmental impact statement on groundwater effects from the Yucca Mountain project, according to a notice in the Federal Register late last week. Stakeholders will have until Nov. 20 to submit comments on the report, and the NRC has scheduled an additional […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 9/18/2015 As the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week winds down its public comment period for the proposed 10.CFR.61 rulemaking changes, a looming potential addition could delay the rulemaking by an additional three to four years, a NRC official said last week at the 2015 RadWaste Summit in Summerlin, Nev. With […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will appear before the House Energy and Power and House Environment and the Economy Subcommittees this morning in a hearing that is sure to touch on the Commission’s recent draft Yucca Mountain supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on groundwater as well as regulations relating to the 2011 Fukushima accident. “We look forward […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued late last week a Confirmatory Action Letter to International Isotopes that outlined agreed upon steps needed to be taken before resuming operations at its Idaho Falls, Idaho facility after a worker received a radiation dose there last month. The Aug. 20 incident occurred when a technician was preparing to transfer […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission denied late last week a petition to look at the internal reactor pressure vessels at the Vermont Yankee and Kewaunee Power Stations for signs of possible cracking over time in the system, according to a posting in the Federal Register. The petition had requested that the NRC “conduct exigent and immediate […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/28/2015 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s readiness to conduct a timely review of Northwest Medical Isotopes’ construction permit application for its molybdenum-99 facility remains “the critical pathway” to commercializing the company’s business plan, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Carolyn Haass told RW Monitor in an Aug. 12 interview. As of […]

Jeremy L. Dillon RW Monitor 8/28/2015 Industry and staff both agreed that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission would be better served to allow the state of Texas to regulate the disposal of Greater-Than-Class C radioactive waste than have the NRC oversee it, they said during a Aug. 13 commission briefing on GTCC disposal. Waste Control Specialists […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has reopened the public comment period for the proposed 10.CFR.61 rulemaking, according to a notice in the Federal Register today. Following the release of the proposed rule in March, the NRC conducted a 120-day public comment period that ended on July 24, but the notice says the commission wanted “to allow […]

The state of Vermont last week filed a federal lawsuit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for authorizing Entergy to pull resources from its decommissioning trust fund for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in order to pay for spent fuel management and other preliminary decommissioning costs. Vermont argued in its suit, filed in the Court […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced yesterday that Victor McCree will serve as the body’s next executive director for operations, the top career position in the agency. Current Executive Director Mark Satorius plans to retire at the end of 2015, and McCree is expected to begin his new job on Sept. 27, 2015, the NRC said. […]

Lance Moore WC Monitor 8/07/2015 A senior fuel facility inspector from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is expected this weekend to complete a weeklong assessment of the uranium hexafluoride (UF6) leak that occurred during maintenance activities at the Honeywell Metropolis Works facility in Illinois last Saturday. The amount of UF6 that leaked from a valve […]