Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Decommissioning of the two standing reactors at the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) will produce “significant and unavoidable” environmental affects, even with mitigation measures, the California State Lands Commission said Monday in its final environmental impact report (EIR) on the upcoming project. The finding is in line with the draft version of the […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in December spent $1,566 of its remaining balance from the fund intended to pay the agency’s licensing activities for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. That left the industry regulator with an unobligated, unexpended balance of $412,552, according to its latest report to Congress, posted this week on […]

A Chicago-based environmental organization has asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reconsider a proposed decision to dismiss a petition against nuclear power operator FirstEnergy Corp. over the state of decommissioning funding for three power plants due to close in coming years. The facts that form the basis for the proposed NRC director’s decision will be […]

A senior Department of Energy official on Thursday urged the Senate to confirm nominees to fill four leadership vacancies, including a candidate to oversee the agency’s nuclear power and waste activities. “I’d like to kindly ask the committee for consideration … around the leadership positions that are still open for us as a department. We […]

AECOM on Tuesday reported $5 billion in revenue for the quarter ended Dec, 31, about 3 percent more than the $4.9 billion reported in the same period one year earlier. Net income attributable to AECOM came in at $52 million, down 54 percent from $111 million reported in the same quarter a year ago.  The […]

Southern California Edison (SCE) on Tuesday gave newly elected Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) the business over his recent warning about the safety of spent nuclear fuel in storage at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). “There is no credible scenario in which this tweet from @MikeLevinCA would be factual,” the California utility, majority owner and licensee for […]

By John Stang Duke Energy has requested that the federal government release 3,854 acres of its 4,738 acres at its retired Crystal River nuclear plant site for unrestricted use. The Charlotte, N.C.-based power company wants to find still-to-be-determined uses for the acreage at the Crystal River Energy Complex on Florida’s Gulf Coast, about 85 miles […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the current federal fiscal year anticipates collecting $781.9 million in fees from its licensees, slightly less than it brought in last year. The agency’s budget for fiscal 2019, under the multi-agency “minibus” appropriations bill signed into law in September, is $911 million. That is down by $11 million from […]

The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts could in March receive an improved safety rating from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, just a couple months before its scheduled permanent closure. The Entergy boiling-water reactor plant on Cape Cod has since 2015 been in Column 4 of the NRC’s Action Matrix, multiple/repetitive degraded cornerstone — the […]

By John Stang Pacific Gas & Electric said this week it is sticking to its schedule for closure of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant even as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. “Throughout the Chapter 11 process we will continue to operate our electric and natural gas business as usual. There are no […]

After decades on staff and one term as a member of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Stephen Burns plans to retire in June — for the second time. Burns noted his decision during an all-staff meeting Monday near NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md. “At the All Hands, the Commissioner reiterated (not for the first time) […]

About 370,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel have been produced by commercial reactors worldwide since the 1950s, with another 12,000 metric tons being generated annually, according to a new report from the environmental organization Greenpeace. Roughly one-third of the spent fuel has been reprocessed, leaving the rest in storage in 14 nations. “The majority […]

By John Stang U.S. Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) has announced creation of a task force to study safety issues at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in his state. “Today I’m launching a task force made up of local stakeholders and experts to tackle the enormous safety challenges we face with the San Onofre […]

The nongovernmental organization representing communities near Department of Energy facilities is urging Senate leaders to commit to ending the federal government’s dithering over building a disposal facility for the nation’s nuclear waste. The United States holds roughly 100,000 metric tons of waste that by law must go into a permanent repository, which Congress in 1987 […]

Elevated levels of radioactive tritium were found in groundwater samples taken early last year from the La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor in Wisconsin, produced during demolition of the reactor building, according to a site investigation report submitted to the state in November. However, subsequent sampling through much of 2018 showed tritium infiltration of groundwater had […]

Governors from 22 western states and territories last week called on the new Congress to advance a solution to the long impasse over disposal of U.S. radioactive waste. Radioactive waste management was among the many issues for state and federal cooperation included in the Western Governors’ Association’s priorities list, mailed Jan. 14 to the leaders […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Trump administration is likely in its fiscal 2020 federal budget plan to again seek funding for licensing the radioactive waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, nuclear industry representatives said here Tuesday. Whether Congress will appropriate any money remains in question. “I think the budget request for the next fiscal year […]

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The White House has received a list of candidates for positions on the federal Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (NWTRB), but there was no word this week on when they might be appointed. Nine of the current 10 members of the independent advisory agency are serving past the expiration of their terms […]

By John Stang Holtec International argued Thursday that several advocacy groups do not have legal standing to contest the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s licensing of the company’s planned New Mexico interim storage site for used nuclear fuel Jay Silberg, an attorney for the New Jersey energy technology company, made the case during the second day of […]

By John Stang Southern California Edison said Thursday that training and procedural shortfalls led to a mishap last year in relocating spent reactor fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California, but contended there was no danger of a storage canister falling hard enough to cause it to leak out radioactive material. […]

A split Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday narrowly signed off on a new rule intended to further protect U.S. nuclear power plants from a disaster akin to the March 2011 reactor meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi facility in Japan. Commissioners voted 3-2 along party lines to approve the rule on mitigation of beyond-design-basis events. It […]

A three-member Atomic Licensing and Safety Board at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects in March to decide which organizations can intervene in the agency review of the license application for a spent nuclear fuel storage facility in New Mexico. The board has scheduled oral arguments on the intervention and hearing petitions for Wednesday and […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will meet with industry representatives on Feb. 8 near Washington, D.C., to discuss its next nuclear decommissioning project: the SM-1 reactor on the grounds of Fort Belvoir. The SM-1 operated from 1957 to 1973 at the Army base in Fairfax County, Va. It was the first nuclear power plant […]

The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) has thrown its weight behind the Department of Energy’s case for reinterpreting the definition of high-level radioactive waste based primarily on its risk characteristics and not its source of origin. The organization, representing about 100 DOE contractors, filed its formal comments endorsing the reinterpretation shortly after the department proposed […]

U.S. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) will remain in a leadership role on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where last year he began a concerted push for a policy bill to advance the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository toward realization. With the Democrats taking control of the House in the November midterm elections, though, Shimkus […]

The White House on Wednesday renominated Rita Baranwal to lead the Department of Energy’s nuclear power and waste activities. Baranwal was among more than 150 people nominated for federal jobs late Wednesday, many of whom were previously nominated but did not get Senate votes before the last Congress ended on Jan. 3. When one session […]