Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week began its full review of a license transfer application that would return control of the nearly decommissioned La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor in Wisconsin to its owner. The nuclear power plant has been closed since 1987, and Dairyland Power Cooperative in March 2016 received NRC authorization to transfer […]

A second defendant has been added to a lawsuit seeking to recoup costs for the remediation of the radioactively contaminated West Lake Landfill in Missouri. Then, in a petition filed Thursday, landfill owner Bridgeton Landfill LLC suggested it would add yet another defendant to the complaint: multinational investment bank Citigroup. On Oct. 23, Bridgeton Landfill […]

Southern California Edison could face up to five violations from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a mishap in placing a canister of used nuclear fuel into storage at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). Two potential violations are considered “escalated” — a major classification, according to an NRC online briefing Thursday on its […]

By John Stang Paris-based waste and water management multinational Veolia said Thursday net income rose on a boost in revenue for the first nine months of 2018. “Veolia’s nine-month results are very satisfying. Revenue growth is sustained and solid, and provides operating leverage resulting in growth in net current income of 20 percent as to […]

The electoral defeat this week of Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) could remove one major political obstacle to funding and other legislative measures that would advance the long-awaited Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Rep. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) took slightly more than 50 percent of the statewide vote to beat Heller and three independent-party candidates […]

Democratic Party lawmakers from Nevada are urging President Donald Trump to follow through on his apparent pledge to re-evaluate plans for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, after Energy Secretary Rick Perry said the administration continues to support the project. “These contradictory remarks from Secretary Perry underline why the White House must follow through on […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday denied two groups’ petitions for dismissal of license applications for interim spent fuel storage facilities in Texas and New Mexico. “The NRC’s regulations allow interested persons to file petitions to intervene and requests for hearing in which they can raise concerns regarding a particular license application. These regulations do […]

Nevada and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission through Thursday continued to wrangle over against a state request that a federal judge block Commissioner David Wright from participating in adjudicating the license application for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Lawyers for both sides in recent days filed counter-claims and counter-counter-claims in the U.S. Court of Appeals […]

Cost overruns for core cleanup projects at the United Kingdom’s Sellafield nuclear site are expected to total £913 million ($1.16 billion), the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee said Wednesday. In a report on the U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s efforts to reduce the risk left by former nuclear weapons and power operations at the complex […]

By John Stang Entergy and Holtec International are at least a couple weeks behind schedule in submitting the license transfer application and associated paperwork for the proposed sale of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. In late September, the two companies said they anticipated they would in October deliver to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission […]

Parties to a settlement agreement and memorandum of understanding for the planned sale of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant are allowing another month to secure final regulatory approval necessary for the deal. The new date at which parties are authorized to withdraw from the settlement, if the Vermont Public Utility Commission has not ruled […]

By John Stang Southern California Edison believes it has enough money to tear down and dispose of the final two reactor units at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), with little likelihood of additional funds being needed, according to its parent corporation’s latest 10-Q filing with the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission. The utility […]

By John Stang The always controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository could play a role in determining whether Republicans or Democrats control the U.S. Senate after the midterm elections on Tuesday. Incumbent Nevada senior Sen. Dean Heller (R) is campaigning to retain his seat against a challenge from Rep. Jacky Rosen (D). He has been seen […]

Warship builder Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) hopes its ownership of a nuclear cleanup business will offer an opportunity to break into for what is expected to be a growing market for decommissioning of commercial atomic energy plants “Our group is very focused on determining the right way for us to focus in the commercial D&D […]

By John Stang The owner of the radioactively contaminated West Lake Landfill is suing to recoup some cleanup costs from a company that generated radioactive waste sent to the site. Bridgeton Landfill LLC, a subsidiary of Republic Services, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for Eastern Missouri against Mallinckrodt LCC, seeking an unspecified amount of money […]

By John Stang “Multiple performance deficiencies” contributed to an August mishap in the transfer of spent reactor fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California, and could have led to a storage container being dropped nearly 20 feet, according to initial findings from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. At the top of […]

A panel of the Utah Department of Environmental Quality on Thursday rejected a request for an exemption to state rules to enable EnergySolutions to move ahead with potential disposal of depleted uranium at its facility near the unincorporated community of Clive. The Waste Management and Radiation Control Board voted against the Salt Lake City-based nuclear […]

Nearly a week after President Donald Trump suggested his administration could rethink its efforts to license a nuclear waste repository under Yucca Mountain in Nevada, there were no details on what such an approach might look like. Any new plan would run counter to the Trump White House’s efforts in its first two budget requests […]

The Department of Energy said Tuesday it is considering sending the nation’s entire stock of Greater-Than-Class C and GTCC-like low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) for disposal at a specialized facility in West Texas. The proposal is addressed in a site-specific assessment of the potential environmental effects of shipping and holding the material at the Federal Waste […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is suspending its search for sites in Nevada that could host hearings on the license application for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository until the agency knows whether it will again need such a facility. Commissioners unanimously concurred with a staff recommendation to defer further work on siting the hearing space, […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Wednesday approved reductions to a number of fees for disposal of low-level radioactive waste in the state. The fee reductions were part of a larger rulemaking for the Texas Administrative Code, which also updates language in several state regulations on radioactive waste management and requires licensees to minimize […]

The state of Nevada has jumped the gun in seeking to force a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to recuse himself from any ruling over the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, so its petition in federal court should be dismissed, the NRC argued this week. Case law has shown that a recusal request […]

By John Stang The fact that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission tweaked the conditions for transferring the licenses for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is cause for the state Public Utility Commission to reject the plan as it currently stands, an environmental group argued in a new filing Wednesday. Among the organizations authorized to […]

By John Stang FirstEnergy Solutions is backing a new lobbying group that aims to prevent the closure of the company’s two nuclear power plants in Ohio. The Ohio Clean Energy Jobs Alliance is a coalition of local -level government, business, and labor leaders who plan to lobby the Ohio state government to help keep FirstEnergy’s Davis-Besse […]

By John Stang The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is taking public comments through Nov. 19 on the proposed license transfer for the newly closed Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey. Parties also have until Nov. 8 to request to intervene and a public hearing on the proposed sale of the plant, according to an NRC […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in August spent $5,892 from its remaining Nuclear Waste Fund balance, with some of it going to legal costs in a petition against one of the commissioners. The agency after that spending had $443,310 remaining in unexpended, unobligated money from the fund intended to pay for development of the planned […]