Vol. 16, No. 33 
Appeals court says NRC cannot license commercial interim storage; strips license from Orano-WCS joint venture
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Recommissioning & Restarts
Holtec says Palisades could restart in August 2025; NRC pushback on environmental review
The shuttered Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan could restart in about two years, plant owner Holtec International told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in a public meeting Tuesday. The date will depend among other things on whether Holtec, Jupiter, Fla., can get a billion-dollar loan from the Department of Energy, but it may also depend […]
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Interim Storage & Waste Disposal
Waste board probes DOE on states rights, public disclosure of consent-based consortia’s work
Members of a federal board on Wednesday questioned whether Department of Energy grantees could make inroads with state governments as part of the agency’s drive to find a host community for a federal interim storage site for spent nuclear fuel. At their annual meeting, held this year in Idaho Falls and streamed online, members of […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
California court tosses enviros’ challenge to Diablo Canyon life-extension
A state court ruled last week that California can proceed with its effort to keep the Diablo Canyon Power Plant online into the 2030s, spurning an environmentalist group’s argument that the plan violated a contract. A 2022 state law that allowed a five-year life extension for the plant’s two reactors essentially voided the contract that […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
NRC staffing shortfall will clog licensing of new reactors, GAO says
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not have the staff it needs to license new nuclear reactor designs and needs to take another look at its hiring programs before that can change, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office. The agency, which regulates civilian nuclear power plants and the waste they produce, has […]
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Reactor Licensing & Regulation
Round up: New NRC counsel; Fukushima visit; Abolish the NRC?; more
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week appointed Brooke Clark its new general counsel, effective Oct. 15. Clark will be the agency’s chief legal advisor. She will replace Marian Zobler who was to retire, the agency wrote in a news release. Since 1998, when she joined the NRC for the first time, Clark has bounced to […]