Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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 […]

By John Stang A California nuclear waste disposal startup on Wednesday successfully inserted a narrow canister through 2,000 feet of vertical shaft to deposit it in a horizontal tunnel — and then later retrieved the same small container. Deep Isolation, a 2-year-old firm from Berkeley, demonstrated its prototype canister at an undisclosed commercial oil and […]

WASHINGTON — The United States still needs to find an isolated location to bury its nuclear waste, just not below Yucca Mountain in Nevada, former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko said Thursday. “The concept has always been bury it and forget. That’s the idea, that you could find a place where you could isolate […]

By John Stang California utility Pacific Gas & Electric said this week it does not expect its impending bankruptcy filing to impact the future closure and decommissioning of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The company announced its intent to file for federal bankruptcy protection on Jan. 29, as it tries to figure out how to […]

By John Stang The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office plans to formally raise concerns about decommissioning of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station as the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission decides whether to allow owner Entergy to transfer its license to Holtec International. “The Attorney General intends … to intervene in the pending license transfer proceeding to articulate … […]

Congress should fund the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada this year as part of a broader nuclear waste management approach, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), now officially the Department of Energy’s head Senate appropriator in the 116th Congress, said Wednesday. “This year, we should resolve the more than 30 year stalemate over how to dispose of […]

Staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission expect in late spring to issue a draft regulatory basis for disposal of Greater-Than-Class C low-level radioactive waste. The finalized version of the document would evaluate whether there is justification to conduct a rulemaking to update federal regulations for disposal of the material. The draft regulatory basis would […]

The partial shutdown of the federal government has forced relocation of oral arguments next week on requests to intervene in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission license application for a planned spent nuclear fuel storage site in New Mexico. The oral arguments will now be held at the State Bar of New Mexico in Albuquerque rather than […]

By John Stang The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects to take nine months to a year to complete its technical review of the request from Entergy and Holtec International to transfer the federal license for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. The two corporations in November submitted the request to transfer the plant reactor […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week preliminarily rejected an environmental group’s petition that power company FirstEnergy Corp. be penalized for failing to ensure it had sufficient funding to decommission three nuclear power plants scheduled to close by 2021. The latest available information does not demonstrate that FirstEnergy and several subsidiaries are breaching NRC regulations, […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday it had scheduled a meeting on Jan. 24 with representatives from Southern California Edison (SCE) to discuss possible violations of federal regulations connected to a radioactive waste transfer mishap at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The agency is considering fines or other forms of “escalated enforcement” […]

By John Stang Holtec International is philosophically at ease with accepting a pair of potential violations being considered by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but contended Wednesday there was no safety threat in procedural glitches in modifying the design of a storage container for spent nuclear fuel. During a meeting at NRC headquarters, Holtec President […]

Power company Entergy on Friday completed the sale of its shuttered Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to NorthStar Group Services, a deal more than two years in making. The announcement closes a first-of-its-kind deal for managing post-closure cleanup of these facilities, with the owner passing full responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management […]

The states of Washington and Oregon have declared their formal opposition to a federal proposal for a new interpretation of the definition of high-level radioactive waste. Meanwhile, industry and community stakeholder groups are pressing the Department of Energy to proceed with the revised interpretation. The Energy Department is proposing to reconsider its interpretation of material […]

Oral arguments scheduled later this month on petitions for interventions and hearings in the license application for a planned spent nuclear fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico will not be livestreamed, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission board adjudicating the requests ruled. Eighteen entities have claimed standing to intervene in Holtec International’s request for a 40-year […]

Representatives from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Holtec International are scheduled to meet on Jan. 9 to discuss two possible violations of federal regulations in the energy services firm’s updated design for a spent nuclear fuel storage canister. The apparent violations, identified during a May 2018 inspection of Holtec headquarters in Camden, N.J., could lead […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a public meeting for Jan. 15 to discuss the post-shutdown decommissioning activities report (PSDAR) and decommissioning cost estimate for the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Massachusetts. Owner Entergy plans to shut down the single-reactor facility on Cape Cod by June 1 of this year. In the PSDAR submitted to […]

By John Stang The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved significant reductions in the amounts of insurance the newly retired Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station must carry. The reductions cover both on-site and off-site insurance plant owner Exelon must keep at the single-reactor New Jersey facility, according to Dec. 28 notices in the Federal Register. Exelon […]

The 115th Congress ended Thursday without a Senate vote on confirmation of the White House nominee for assistant energy secretary for nuclear energy. That means Rita Baranwal would have to again be nominated and go through the confirmation process if she is to assume leadership of the Department of Energy’s nuclear power and waste missions. […]

A federal appeals court has dismissed the state of Nevada’s petition seeking to force a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to recuse himself from any decision-making on licensing the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. The ruling arrived as issue observers anticipate the Trump administration will in a matter of weeks again request […]

The operator of the retired San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California has requested a public meeting with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to discuss potential safety violations connected to an Aug. 3 mishap in transfer of spent reactor fuel. “As discussed, SCE has decided to use Pre-decisional Enforcement Conference (PEC} for the two apparent […]

The government of the United Kingdom on Wednesday officially began its search for a site for a geologic disposal facility for its stockpile of higher-activity radioactive waste. “There is no preferred location for a GDF and we are adopting a consent-based process to identify a suitable area to host the facility. A suitable site will […]

The Michigan Legislature this week passed legislation setting out restrictions on disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) in state landfills, along with an accompanying funding bill. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) “has not made any decisions on these bills,” spokesman Ari Adler said by email this week. “He needs to review them […]