Vol. 13, No. 22

Reactor Licensing & Regulation

NRC Continuing Return-to-Office Preparations As Pandemic Stretches On

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is making preparations for bringing staff back to their offices amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a spokesman said Tuesday. Ninety-eight percent of the federal regulator’s personnel have been working remotely since March to help prevent the spread of novel coronavirus 2019 during the national public health emergency. The agency’s “COVID Task Force […]
  • Interim Storage & Waste Disposal

    NRC to Reduce Frequency of Spent-Fuel Storage Inspections

    The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is moving ahead with a set of updates to its oversight of storage pads for spent nuclear fuel, including downshifting the frequency for standard inspections to once every three years. The agency intends this year to complete the revisions to its independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) inspection program, with all […]

  • Decommissioning

    Talks Continue on Assistance for Texas Rad Waste Facility

    By John Stang Representatives of U.S. regional low-level radioactive waste compacts on Wednesday continued to discuss contingency plans for a financially ailing disposal facility in Texas. No conclusions came out of the teleconference, which was a follow-up to a similar session earlier this month on the state-owned, privately run Texas Compact Waste Facility (CWF). It […]

  • Decommissioning

    Edison Wants ‘Right Place’ for SONGS Spent Fuel, Exec Says

    Another canister of spent fuel was being transferred to dry storage Thursday evening at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), even as an executive affirmed majority owner Southern California Edison’s (SCE) hopes to find an off-site home for the radioactive waste. “We have engaged a strategic team to put together a plan that we […]

  • Decommissioning

    United Steelworkers Opposes Federal Very Low-Level Waste Rules Update

    The United Steelworkers union is sharply opposing a proposal to ease Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules for disposal of “very low-level” (VLLW) radioactive waste in landfills. “The United Steelworkers asks the NRC to withhold issuing this proposed rule and strongly urge you to reconsider. The minimal monetary costs this rule may reduce is not worth the […]

  • International

    Canadian Cleanup Project Wrestles With Schedule Impact From COVID-19

    Remediation of radioactively contaminated municipalities in Ontario, Canada, has been knocked off schedule by the COVID-19 pandemic, but organizers hope to claw back time as work ramps up in coming months. In March, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories halted nearly all field operations under the Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI), just ahead of the program’s annual construction […]

  • Commercial Low-Level Waste

    Montana Legislature Council Signs Off on New TENORM Rules

    By John Stang The Montana Legislature’s Environmental Quality Council voted 12-2 on Wednesday to remove an informal objection to setting a state radionuclide-concentration limit of 50 picocuries per gram for its landfills to accept technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) waste. In April, the Environmental Council made that informal objection, which delayed the rulemaking […]

  • Reactor Licensing & Regulation

    Wrap Up: New NRC Inspector General Sworn In

    A longtime federal attorney was sworn in Wednesday as inspector general for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Robert Feitel succeeds Hubert Bell, who retired in December 2018 after 22 years in the position. As inspector general, Feitel now leads an office with a yearly budget of about $13 million and a mission to conduct audits and […]

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