Vol. 15, No. 02 
NE-1 Huff Says ‘Creative’ Responses Coming in to Interim Storage RFI
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Decommissioning
DOE Info Request on Civil Nuke Credits Program Weeks Away, Agency Says
The Department of Energy is planning to soon take some initial steps to nail down a process for allocating several billion dollars in federal funds to economically-troubled nuclear power plants, an agency spokesperson said this week. A Request for Information (RFI) and notice of intent from DOE related to the civil nuclear credits program greenlit […]
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Interim Storage & Waste Disposal
In Letter NWTRB Says ‘Legal Framework’ Needed to Site New Spent Fuel Repository
In the latest rallying cry for an issue now back-burnered for a decade, the federal government’s independent technical experts on nuclear waste called on the Department of Energy to help forge a “long-term political commitment” to site a nuclear waste repository. “Successful repository implementation needs a legal framework that clearly describes the roles of the […]
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Decommissioning
Renewable Without Nuclear “Like Running in Place,” Exelon Spin-Off Says
Towing a popular line among industry and nuclear power advocates, executives at Exelon’s recently-named spin-off company Constellation said this week that the federal government can’t achieve its climate objectives without giving nuclear energy a hand. “[I]f we bring in new renewables, and all they do is replace lost nuclear generation, we will be running in […]
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Decommissioning
Mass Lawmakers Urge Holtec Not to Dump Pilgrim Spent Fuel Pool Water into Cape Cod Bay
The company in charge of decommissioning a nuclear power plant on the Massachusetts shoreline should pursue “alternative methods of disposal” for the site’s spent fuel pool instead of releasing the irradiated wastewater into the Cape Cod Bay, the state’s Senate delegation said in a letter this week. Although Holtec International has delayed plans to discharge […]
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Interim Storage & Waste Disposal
NM AG’s Nuke Waste Law Arguments Still Fall Short, NRC Argues
Attempts by New Mexico’s attorney general to pit a federal nuclear waste law against a proposed commercial interim storage facility for spent fuel in Texas don’t pass legal muster, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission told an appeals court last week. State Attorney General Hector Balderas’s December argument that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) is “inextricably […]
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Decommissioning
Holtec to Pay $150K Fine for Oyster Creek Security Violations
Holtec International has agreed to pay a six-figure fine for unspecified security violations at a nuclear power plant the company is decommissioning in New Jersey, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week. Holtec told NRC Jan. 7 that it intends to pay the $150,000 fine proposed in December for security violations at Oyster Creek Nuclear […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
NRC Allowing ‘Project-Based’ Telework as COVID-19 Cases Swell
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will allow its employees to work remotely on a limited basis after the recent spike in omicron-variant COVID-19 cases, according to a recent memo from the agency’s operations department. NRC extended “additional flexibilities for project-based telework” to Feb. 26 from Jan. 15, according to a Jan. 6 memo to staff from […]
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Interim Storage & Waste Disposal
Sam Brinton to Join DOE as Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition Deputy
Sam Brinton will join the Department of Energy’s nuclear power office as the agency’s second-in-command of nuclear waste issues, the nuclear-waste policy expert and current global political director for Deep Isolation announced this week. Brinton, who currently serves as global political affairs director at aspirant nuclear-waste services company Deep Isolation, will become the Office of […]
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Advanced Nuclear & SMRs
Wrap-Up: RIC Goes Virtual; DOE Spent Fuel Railcar; NRC Oklo Tweet Goes Semi-Viral
Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Here are some other stories from around the civilian nuclear power space that RadWaste Monitor was tracking this week. NRC Conference to go All-Virtual Amid Omicron Surge After the COVID-19 Omicron variant spread rapidly across the country this winter, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has decided to host an annual spring conference virtually, […]