Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

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 […]

The Board of Directors for the Omaha, Neb., Public Power District (OPPD) voted Thursday to expedite decommissioning of the shuttered Fort Calhoun Station nuclear power plant. The new approach is expected to shave nearly four decades from the timeline for decommissioning, starting less than two years from now and wrapping up in 2028. It should […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has tentatively determined there would be no environmental impact from renewing the license for a storage pad for waste from reactor Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. The Department of Energy has requested a 20-year renewal of the license for the independent spent fuel […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on this week approved the license transfer application for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, putting the retired facility one step closer to being sold. The next and last major step in the regulatory process is approval from the Vermont Public Utility Commission, which site owner Entergy and prospective buyer NorthStar […]

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has scheduled a confirmation hearing next month for the White House nominee to lead the Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy. The White House last week announced the intended nomination of Rita Baranwal as assistant energy secretary for nuclear energy. The actual nomination paperwork was submitted to […]

PacTec, a maker of industrial bags for radioactive and hazardous waste, this month reasserted its federal court patent-infringement claim against a rival and fought back against that company’s counterclaim of improper behavior. In an Oct. 1 filing in U.S. District Court, the Clinton, La.-based company acknowledged that an employee in early May photographed work being […]

By John Stang Staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recommended that two environmental organizations be allowed to intervene in deliberations over Holtec International’s license application to build and operate a used reactor fuel storage site in southeastern New Mexico. However, staff also determined several watchdog organizations and spent fuel storage container manufacturer NAC […]

The public has 60 days to weigh in on a proposal to modify the fashion in which the Department of Energy classifies “high-level radioactive waste” (HLW), following publication Wednesday of a formal notice in the Federal Register. The Energy Department announced Oct. 4 it would seek to classify HLW more on its radioactive traits and […]

The U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management will within a few days formally propose to change the way it interprets the term “high-level radioactive waste” (HLW). A Federal Register notice, expected to be posted next week, will outline DOE’s plan to classify high-level waste more on its radioactive characteristics and less on its source […]

Two members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation on Monday demanded assurance that the planned sale and decommissioning of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station will not endanger the public’s safety or security. Sen. Ed Markey (D) and Rep. Bill Keating (D) made their case in letters to power company Entergy and energy technology firm Holtec International, respectively […]

A newly inked deal has paved the way for Veolia Nuclear Solutions to demonstrate its patented GeoMelt technology to process radioactive waste sent from the Idaho National Laboratory (INL). Under the agreement, announced Sept. 25, INL management and operations contractor Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) will ship some drums with small amounts of radioactive contaminated sodium wastes to […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Sept. 28 it expects to need at least a couple extra weeks to issue its decision on the license transfer for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. “[W]e have been saying we anticipated issuing a decision by the end of the third quarter,” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said by email. […]

A nuclear watchdog organization and two private oil and gas entities are contesting the stance from the staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that they cannot request dismissal of license applications for facilities to store tens of thousands of tons of spent nuclear reactor fuel in Texas and New Mexico. Beyond Nuclear and the teaming […]