Vol. 12, No. 23 
Final Nuke Waste Strategy Could be Years Away, Observers Say
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Budget & Policy
Full House to Take Up Yucca-Free Spending Bill Starting Wednesday
A multi-bill appropriations package that includes fiscal year 2020 funding for interim spent nuclear-fuel storage — but not a permanent repository such as Yucca Mountain — is headed to the House floor on Wednesday. The package, or minibus, includes many spending bills for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1; it was not clear at […]
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Commercial Decommissioning
SONGS Fuel Movements to Resume in Early 2020
The movement of used nuclear fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is expected to begin again in early 2020. Fuel movement was expected to begin in a few weeks and conclude between February and April, Doug Bauder, Southern California Edison’s (SCE) chief nuclear officer at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), said […]
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Commercial Decommissioning
Lessons From Fuel Transfer Error Will Aid SONGS Decommissioning, Owner Says
Southern California Edison intends to apply lessons learned from an error in loading spent reactor fuel into storage at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) to its oversight of the upcoming decommissioning at the retired power plant, according to a senior manager with the utility. “We’ve done a number of things to make our […]
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Commercial Decommissioning
Pilgrim Shuts Down for Good
The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station shut down permanently last week. Entergy hopes by the end of the year to sell the Cape Cod property to Holtec International, which would assume all responsibility for cleanup and spent fuel management, along with the trust fund that will pay for the work. The final curtain fell after deadline last […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
NRC Prepares for Wave of Retirements
About 40% of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s staff members are expected to be eligible to retire by 2022. That translates to 1,147 out of 2,868 permanent Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) employees on the rolls as of March 31. Eligibility for retirement is based on age and years of federal service. This number does not include […]
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Interim Storage & Waste Disposal
Beyond Nuclear Again Presses NRC for Hearing Over Proposed Interim Storage Site
The nuclear watchdog organization Beyond Nuclear filed an appeal this week with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory commission to try to overturn an earlier ruling that rejected petitions for an evidentiary hearing to contest Holtec International’s license application for a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico. Beyond Nuclear filed its appeal Monday. The […]
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Commercial Low-Level Waste
Energy Dept. Still Views WCS as Effective Storage for Mercury
The Waste Control Specialists (WCS) site in Andrews County, Texas is still an attractive potential home for thousands of metric tons of elemental mercury. That’s according to a supplemental analysis published Monday by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management. The document says facilities at WCS would still be a good option for storage of up to 6,800 metrics […]