Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

By John Stang Strong investment returns on the decommissioning trust funds for the Pilgrim and Indian Point nuclear power complexes helped Entergy improve its financial pictures for 2019. The better numbers came from a mix of financial sources – along with the decommissioning trust returns, Entergy benefited from more favorable income tax returns, lower asset […]

The Trump administration this week publicly played down any appearance that recent comments from a senior Department of Energy official indicate continuing commitment to building a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev. Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes “and The Department of Energy fully support finding an alternative to Yucca Mountain for the storage of […]

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he plans to nominate Undersecretary of Energy Mark Menezes to take over as deputy secretary for the Department of Energy. Menezes would succeed Dan Brouillette, who in December was confirmed and sworn in as secretary of energy. The nomination for the No. 2 spot at DOE had not been […]

By John Stang Power company Exelon repeated Tuesday that it still needs additional legislative help from states to keep its nuclear plants open. The message from President and CEO Chris Crane, speaking to financial analysts during a teleconference on the company’s 2019 earnings, echoed concerns he has raised repeatedly – most recently during the company’s […]

By John Stang The New York state Attorney General’s Office and three other parties this week filed petitions for hearings with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on the proposed license transfer and sale of the Indian Point Energy Center. Along with the Attorney General’s Office, the petitioners are: jointly the town of Cortlandt, village of Buchanan, […]

The Trump administration this week again proposed transferring management of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to the Department of Energy. The plan is laid out in fiscal 2021 budget documents for both entities, employing similar language to that used last year in the White […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is requesting $863.4 million in funding for the upcoming 2021 fiscal year, a small step up from the $855.6 million authorized by Congress for the current spending cycle. But the agency noted Monday that amount would be 17% below its spending for fiscal 2014, just over $1 billion. In that time, the […]

Nevada’s political leaders voiced skepticism and cautious praise over the White House announcement that it would forgo requesting congressional appropriations to resume licensing of the Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository in their state. But lawmakers representing states with stranded waste urged the Trump administration to rethink its decision even before it was official. This is […]

Even as it abandoned efforts to revive the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, the Trump administration on Monday signaled plans for the federal government to resume collecting fees for the fund intended to pay for the facility. The White House budget for fiscal 2021 provides nothing to resume the long-moribund licensing for radioactive […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects in March to issue a final report on revising its inspection regime for independent spent fuel storage installations (ISFSIs) at U.S. nuclear power plants. “The final report and recommendations, incorporating internal and external feedback, is undergoing internal review,” agency spokesman David McIntyre said by email on Jan. 29. “Once this […]

The Australian government on Saturday announced the selection of property in the town of Kimba in South Australia as the site for its National Radioactive Waste Management Facility. “I am satisfied a facility at Napandee will safely and securely manage radioactive waste and that the local community has shown broad community support for the project […]

There has been no apparent movement by the Trump administration over the last year to fill vacant and expired terms on the federal Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB). The only change to the board in that time was the departure last May of another member, Linda Nozick, a civil and environmental engineering professor at […]

Engineering and construction giant AECOM has completed the $2.4 billion sale of its Management Service business to an affiliate of two New York investment firms. Sale of the subsidiary to American Securities LLC and Lindsay Goldberg LLC closed on Jan. 31, according to an AECOM press release Monday. The new company, called Amentum, is now […]

Comprehensive Decommissioning International (CDI) has secured the contract for decommissioning the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts, one of the company’s owners said Monday. The deal is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, Canadian engineering firm SNC-Lavalin stated in a press release. It was signed on Jan. 31, CDI spokesman Pat O’Brien said by […]

The Department of Energy and the state of Idaho on Tuesday sealed a deal that would allow some spent nuclear fuel to remain at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) past the deadline set under a 1995 agreement. The 25-year-old Settlement Agreement between the state, the Energy Department, and the Navy requires that all federally managed […]

By John Stang FirstEnergy Corp. plans to pay $225 million in cash this year to the creditors of soon-to-be-former subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions. FirstEnergy Chief Financial Officer Steve Strah mentioned that cash payment in a Friday morning teleconference with analysts to discuss the Akron, Ohio-based corporation’s 2019 annual and fourth quarter financial picture. He did not […]

Canadian utility Ontario Power Generation (OPG) has formally terminated its plan to build a deep-underground nuclear waste disposal facility near Lake Huron after a First Nation group voted against the project. The company will now begin a new siting process that could last more than a decade and theoretically end with significant changes to the […]

By John Stang Arguing that a worst-case scenario could result in geysers of radioactive water erupting on the California coast, an advocacy organization filed a new petition Tuesday to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to stop the decommissioning of the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. (SONGS). SONGS majority owner Southern California Edison countered that the […]

The White House said late Thursday it would not seek any funding in its upcoming budget proposal for licensing a nuclear waste disposal facility under Yucca Mountain, Nev. The brief emailed statement from an administration official – “The President’s 2021 budget will not have funding for the licensing of Yucca Mountain in it” – came […]

The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) in Canada said on Jan. 24 that just two communities, both in the province of Ontario, remain in contention to host an underground disposal facility for spent fuel from the nation’s nuclear power plants. The locations are the township of Ignace in northwest Ontario and the municipality of South […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The Trump administration does not plan to request any funding in fiscal 2021 for licensing the planned nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev., issue experts said at an industry conference here Tuesday. That would reverse the White House’s efforts in its last three budget proposals to persuade Congress to appropriate money […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is giving the state of South Carolina more time to submit new data and input on the license renewal of Westinghouse Electric’s Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility. The formal 30-day comment period on the federal agency’s draft environmental assessment for the renewal application ended on Nov. 27, 2019. On Jan. 13, the […]

Interactions between processed high-level radioactive waste and stainless-steel containers could undermine long-term safe geologic disposal of the material, researchers at Ohio State University said in a study published this week. “The corrosion that is accelerated by the interface interaction between dissimilar materials could profoundly impact the service life of the nuclear waste packages, which, therefore, […]

By John Stang The current and would-be owner of the infamous Three Mile Island reactor Unit 2 in Pennsylvania believe almost $300 million and 16 years can be trimmed from the prior decommissioning plan for the facility. In a package submitted Dec. 12, 2019, to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, GPU Nuclear and TMI-2 Solutions said decommissioning […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy has begun a limited program to explore opportunities for recycling used nuclear fuel, a senior official said Tuesday. “We are starting a small effort to look at some of these options, but it’s early in development and there’s no clear outcome on where it’s going […]

International engineering and construction provider AECOM appears poised to complete the $2.4 billion sale of its government contracting division to a joint venture of two New York investment firms, a company official said Tuesday. Eric Knox, AECOM vice president for strategic development for nuclear and environment, cited the impending change during a panel discussion at […]

The Department of Energy should expand its use of underground research laboratories (URLs) for research on geologic disposal of nuclear waste, including establishing facilities in the United States, a federal panel of experts said in a report Tuesday. That would include establishing one or more underground research laboratories, potentially using existing underground facilities, according to […]