Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

By John Stang Entergy does not expect the ongoing shutdown of the Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station to affect its longer-term plans to close the plant next year, a spokesman said Wednesday. However, members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation want Pilgrim to dramatically improve its performance before then. The utility company declined to say this week […]

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has approved the Chapter 11 reorganization plan for Westinghouse Electric, which said the authorization paves the way for its sale to a Canadian asset management company. The reorganization plan was overwhelmingly supported by Westinghouse’s creditors, the company said in a Tuesday news release. Brookfield […]

The Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission has approved a revised rule aimed at providing additional information about low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) being imported into the state. Among a number of changes to the original proposal, waste disposal providers covered by the rule would now only be required to issue semiannual reports on their […]

Nuclear services provider EnergySolutions supports allowing use of nuclear power plant decommissioning trust funds for certain operations even before the facility ceases operation, an executive said last week. “We are very supportive of using the decommissioning funds early for legitimate decommissioning activities at nuclear power plants,” Daniel Shrum, senior vice president for regulatory affairs at […]

The nearly $50 million the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requested for fiscal 2019 could be enough to restart the quasi-judicial, and long-moribund, adjudication on licensing Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear waste repository, the head of the commission wrote in a letter to Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.). NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki […]

By John Stang The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is taking public comment through June 5 on a request for an update to federal regulations regarding storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel. Once the comments are received, NRC staff will review the petition for 12 to 18 months, depending on the number and complexity of the […]

By John Stang Teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, FirstEnergy Solutions announced Wednesday it would close its four nuclear power reactors in Ohio and Pennsylvania in coming years if it does not get rapid assistance from the federal and state governments. The four reactors are the 908-megawatt Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station at Oak Harbor, Ohio; the […]

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert on Wednesday signed legislation that will cut radioactive waste disposal fees paid by EnergySolutions by more than $1.7 million per year. State Rep. John Knotwell (R) in January filed the bill to reduce the flat fee paid by radioactive waste disposal facilities in Utah by the amount they paid in taxes in […]

By John Stang Holtec International is studying why an aluminum pin broke off inside a cask designed to store spent nuclear fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California. Tom Palmisano, vice president and chief nuclear officer at SONGS for majority owner Southern California Edison (SCE), briefed the public on the matter at a […]

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has formally requested to withdraw its application with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for renewal of reactor Units 1 and 2 at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The utility instead plans to shut down California’s last operational atomic energy facility within a decade. “PG&E hereby requests to withdraw the […]

By John Stang It might take up to six months after the approval of the 2019 federal budget for U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal facility in Nevada to get back on track, a pair of U.S. House subcommittees were told Tuesday. That is because the regulator’s Yucca team […]

PHOENIX, Ariz. — Orano USA and Waste Control Specialists (WCS) are just weeks from formalizing their partnership to license, build, and operate a facility for centralized interim storage of spent nuclear reactor fuel, new WCS CEO Scott State said Monday. The joint venture, announced last week, will be called Interim Storage Partners. Its first job […]

By John Stang Valhi Inc. apparently kept former subsidiary Waste Control Specialists financially afloat with money borrowed from one of its other businesses over a number of years, according to the holding company’s latest 10-K document. The same March 15 filing with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission also said Valhi believes it will be in […]

The fiscal 2018 omnibus spending bill that passed Congress this week provided no funding for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, but it also did not incorporate language from a Senate appropriations package that some in industry dubbed a “Yucca-mountain position pull.” The House of Representatives passed the $1.3 trillion spending measure Thursday, […]

By John Stang Honeywell International recently sued the federal government in an effort to reclaim almost $2 million in payments made to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2013 and 2014. The lawsuit was filed Feb. 16 in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Honeywell’s Metropolis Works plant in Illinois converts natural uranium into uranium hexafluoride […]

U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Kristine Svinicki on Tuesday touted the benefits of full membership in the five-person panel, without directly mentioning the U.S. Senate’s extended inaction on nominees waiting to fill two vacancies. Svinicki noted that the commission has been at three members “for some period of time” – specifically since William Ostendorff stepped […]

Nearly a year after putting it on ice, Waste Control Specialists aims to revive its application for a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to build and operate a facility for consolidated interim storage of used nuclear reactor fuel. It is doing so in a joint venture planned with Orano USA, the nuclear services and technology […]

Several parties to the state regulatory review of the sale of the shuttered Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant on March 9 called for approval of the new memorandum of understanding that lays out financial-assurance and site-restoration commitments for the deal. All but one of the parties to the Vermont Public Utility Commission proceeding agreed to […]

The majority owner of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California is still waiting for state approval to begin full decontamination and decommissioning of the plant following its permanent closure in 2013. In a March 8 inspection report for SONGS, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said decommissioning general contractor SONGS Decommissioning Solutions (SDS) […]

The U.S. Senate will continue to reject the Department of Energy’s requests for funding to resume work on the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) told Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Wednesday. In a tense exchange during a Senate commerce committee hearing on national infrastructure, Heller asked Perry to […]

WASHINGTON — The head House appropriator for the Department of Energy still does not see much hope for any funding for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in the 2018 spending bill that could be published Monday. The energy portion of the 2018 omnibus the House and Senate are negotiating behind the scenes “has […]

By John Stang Complications in waste treatment operations and closure costs of a facility in Tennessee trimmed Perma-Fix Environmental Services’ revenue and produced an operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2017. However, executives said the company’s outlook is strong in 2018 as it vies for new government and commercial contracts and looks toward a potential […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has less than $500,000 left in its available balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund, which pays for the agency’s work on the proposed Yucca Mountain radioactive waste repository in Nevada. In its latest update to Congress on activities related to licensing of Yucca Mountain, the NRC said its unobligated Nuclear […]

By John Stang The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission should extend its public scoping comment period on a proposed spent reactor fuel storage facility in southeastern New Mexico to allow the state’s Legislature and public agencies to review and comment on the project, New Mexico lawmakers said recently. In a series of identical Feb. 27 letters, […]

By John Stang The owner and prospective buyer of the retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant have agreed to a set of financial assurance and site-cleanup terms that should help the sale pass the state’s regulatory review. All but one of the parties authorized to intervene in the Vermont Public Utility Commission (PUC) process signed […]

Former Waste Control Specialists President and CEO Rod Baltzer has opened a new consulting firm, and is not straying far from his specialty in low-level radioactive waste disposal. “I haven’t Tweeted in a while, but wanted you to know I have started a consulting firm since leaving WCS,” Baltzer said in a March 2 message […]

Remediation of radioactively contaminated residential properties in the Canadian municipality of Port Hope is expected to begin no later than summer, the Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI) said Tuesday. The residential project is one part of the much broader PHAI program of remediation and disposal of low-level radioactive waste in Port Hope and nearby Port […]