Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in April spent $939 of its remaining balance from the federal fund intended to pay for a federal repository for the nation’s nuclear waste. The spending left the agency on April 30 with a $409,861 unspent, undedicated balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund, according to the latest report to Congress. […]

A House of Representatives committee on Tuesday turned back the latest legislative attempt to appropriate funds for licensing the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. A bipartisan group of five lawmakers proposed to provide $15 million via an amendment to H.R. 2740, a “minibus” funding bill for the upcoming 2020 federal fiscal year […]

The California Coastal Commission postponed its scheduled consideration this week of a permit that would allow primary decommissioning operations to begin at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The permit had been on the agenda for Wednesday, the first day of the commission’s three-day June meeting in San Diego. The discussion has been pushed […]

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) has formally objected to commercial plans for an interim storage facility in the state for spent fuel from U.S. nuclear power reactors. Holtec International, of Camden, N.J., has applied for a 40-year license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a facility that ultimately could hold up to […]

The Department of Energy formally published its reinterpretation of the definition of high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in Monday’s Federal Register. As telegraphed for months, and officially announced on June 5, DOE now interprets that the existing HLW definition in the Atomic Energy Act and the Nuclear Waste Policy Act means not all wastes from spent […]

The name of the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition was misidentified in an article in the June 7 issue of RadWaste Monitor.

By John Stang Discussion on whether a state’s consent is needed for it to host a major nuclear waste repository flared up and then went unresolved at a Thursday hearing in Congress. The session of the House Energy and Commerce environment and climate change subcommittee, called to discuss three bills on radioactive waste storage and […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Despite another burst of activity in Congress, it could be years or even decades more before the United States settles on a final strategy for disposal of its growing stockpile of nuclear waste, according to issue watchers. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are in 2019 again debating whether to restart the frozen licensing for the planned […]

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 […]

By John Stang The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts was preparing to permanently shut down Friday, ahead of what its owner and prospective buyer hope will be a rapid decommissioning. “#FYI Tomorrow, Friday, May 31, control room operators at @PilgrimNuclear Power Station will shut down the reactor for the final time,” Entergy tweeted on […]

Duke Energy on Thursday said it had awarded a $540 million contract for expedited decommissioning of its retired Crystal River nuclear power plant in Florida. The Charlotte, N.C.-based power company now anticipates decontamination, disassembly, and teardown operations will wrap up by 2027, decades earlier than the prior projected end date of 2074. Pending state and […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission wants a subsidiary of nuclear services provider EnergySolutions to explain an apparent $15.2 million shortfall in the decommissioning trust fund for the Zion Nuclear Power Station in Illinois. ZionSolutions is the NRC licensee for the retired two-reactor facility while it carries out decommissioning for owner Exelon Generation Corp. In its […]

Staff at the California Coastal Commission are recommending approval of a permit needed for major decommissioning operations to begin at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in San Diego County. However, approval by the commission’s voting members would be dependent on SONGS’ owners agreeing to nearly 20 special conditions, if the staff recommendations are […]

The Texas Legislature last week approved a bill that would delay by two years select charges and fees for operation of Waste Control Specialists’ (WCS) radioactive waste disposal facility. Two amendments from Rep. Alfonso Nevárez (D) were attached on May 22 to a state bill on domestic violence, which was passed in April by the […]

Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wy.) on Wednesday placed blame squarely on Democrats for the ongoing freeze in licensing and then building a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain, Nev. “The project boasts support in Nye County, where Yucca Mountain is located. So why hasn’t it moved forward? Politics,” Barrasso wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. […]

A pair of contractors have started cleaning up a University of Washington building contaminated weeks ago by cesium-137, but there is no timetable for finishing the job or reoccupying the Seattle facility. The contractors are International Isotopes, of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and Chase Environmental, of Louisville, Ky. They are assisting the Washington state Department of Health, […]

The U.S. Senate is lining up a confirmation vote on the Trump administration’s nominee to lead the Energy Department’s Office of Nuclear Energy. Rita Baranwal’s confirmation as assistant energy secretary for nuclear energy was listed on the Senate’s executive calendar for Friday. “That at a time to be determined by the Majority Leader in consultation […]

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is among a growing list of presidential candidates voicing clear opposition to disposal of nuclear waste under Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “Trump is proposing to send our nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain,” Sanders tweeted on May 16. “That would be a disaster. We must stop building new nuclear power plants, and […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on May 17 announced it would collect $782.5 million in licensee fees for the current federal fiscal 2019 budget year, a slight bump up from the amount proposed earlier in the year. The final fee rule will take effect on July 16, according to a notice in the Federal Register. By […]

By John Stang The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission gave the green light Tuesday for resumption of loading used nuclear fuel into dry storage at the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California. The decision puts plant majority owner Southern California Edison (SCE) and fuel offloading contractor Holtec International on a direct path to […]

A new entrant into the U.S. medical isotope industry said Wednesday it has secured funding for construction of a 2-megawatt reactor facility for production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99. Albuquerque, N.M.-based Eden Radioisotopes plans in four years to begin production at the reactor and processing complex in the city of Hobbs, in southeastern New Mexico. […]