Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

The California Coastal Commission said it has effectively been forced to approve permits for spent fuel storage at three nuclear power plants because the federal government has yet to establish a permanent national repository for the radioactive waste. Coastal Commission Chair Dayna Bochco emphasized the danger presented by coastal storage of radioactive material from the […]

A rulemaking now underway at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality would reduce certain charges for disposal of radioactive waste at Waste Control Specialists’ facility in West Texas in hopes of driving up business at the financially struggling company. The state agency in late 2017 initiated the rulemaking to amend a number of segments of […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission just last month issued an updated contingency plan for a lapse in funding, fortuitous timing as the federal government appeared on the precipice of a shutdown Friday afternoon. The latest in a series of short-term congressional spending plans, which have kept the federal government open since the current fiscal year […]

The Savannah River Site’s management and operations contractor hired about 550 employees last year in an effort to offset personnel lost due to retirement. Some of the new Savannah River Nuclear Solutions (SRNS) hires are operators, who assist in the operation of a process or equipment within a nuclear facility at the Department of Energy site in […]

Members of the advisory panel for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s digital repository for documents on the license adjudication for the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository have until Feb. 13 to submit recommendations on reconstituting the retired system. That is also the date for panel members to share their thoughts on the NRC staff’s […]

U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced Wednesday he would not seek re-election, removing an influential voice on nuclear waste issues from Congress a year from now. Issa has represented a coastal zone north of San Diego, first in the 48th Congressional District and now in the 49th District, since 2001. His exit, announced in a […]

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is due this month to issue a decision on the approach for remediation of radiologically contaminated material at the West Lake Superfund Site in Missouri, the agency said Tuesday. A number of options are still being considered, according to an EPA spokesman: “cap in place”; multiple partial excavations […]

AREVA said Tuesday it anticipates sealing an agreement this year to provide technology for a new used nuclear fuel treatment and recycling plant in China. Executives from New AREVA and the China National Nuclear Corp. signed a “memorandum of commercial agreement” for the facility alongside a meeting in Beijing of French President Emmanuel Macron and […]

The owner and prospective buyer of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant have revised their financial assurance plan to address concerns about the sale they hope to complete in 2018. The update was noted in a Jan. 5 letter from Stephanie Hoffman, special counsel for the Vermont Public Service Department, to Judith Whitney, clerk for […]

The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday voted unanimously to authorize utility Pacific Gas & Electric to close its Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in 2025. The plan approved by the five-member commission does not provide all the ratepayer financing PG&E and partnering nongovernmental groups had proposed in their 2016 “Joint Proposal” on shutting down […]

WASHINGTON — Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) wrung a renewed commitment from the Department of Energy to open a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., during a hearing here Tuesday. Shimkus, Congress’ chief advocate for Yucca, pinned down Dan Brouillette, deputy energy secretary, on the agency’s position during a three-hour House […]

The U.S. Department of Energy must be prepared to safely manage its 2,510-metric-ton stockpile of spent nuclear reactor fuel for decades until it can be placed in a permanent repository, according to new findings from a federal panel of experts. “While disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW) in a deep […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has given final authorization for power company Entergy to use the decommissioning trust fund for the retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant for management of the site’s spent reactor fuel. The regulator announced publication of its environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact (FONSI) on the exemption to federal rules […]

Brookfield Business Partners, a global asset management firm, announced Thursday it would purchase ailing nuclear energy and infrastructure giant Westinghouse Electric from Toshiba for $4.6 billion. The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Westinghouse is looking to focus more on nuclear services, including reactor decommissioning. The company already offers a broad range of services in […]

Three Trump administration nominees to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission remain in consideration by the Senate even many other would-be appointees to senior federal jobs were returned to the White House this week. Annie Caputo, David Wright, and Jeff Baran are on the “status quo list,” approved by unanimous Senate consent before the holidays, which […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has postponed until the end of February a meeting of the advisory panel on management of the Licensing Support Network, the repository of documents on the agency’s review of the license application for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Last month, the NRC announced a Jan. 30-31 meeting of the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has reopened the comment period for a draft final guidance on requests for alternative disposal of very low-level radioactive waste. The comment period, which initially closed on Dec. 18, will now stretch to Jan. 17, according to a Dec. 21 notice in the Federal Register. Comments can be submitted at www.regulations.gov, […]

President Donald Trump on Friday signed a third short-term budget for fiscal 2018 to prevent a shutdown of the federal government, including the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. His approval came just a day after both chambers of Congress voted in favor of the continuing resolution through Jan. 19, 2018. The latest stopgap spending plan succeeds […]

RadWaste Monitor will not be published on Dec. 29 in observance of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Please look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Jan. 5, 2018.

Having just completed its $3.27 billion buyout of CH2M, Dallas-based Jacobs Engineering released new information Monday about its business going forward as a $15 billion engineering and infrastructure heavyweight. “Today, we are celebrating the creation of a new Jacobs,” Chairman and CEO Steve Demetriou said in a news release. In the release, Jacobs praised CH2M’s […]

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has authorized Waste Control Specialists (WCS) to store radioactive waste from the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory for an additional two years, to nearly the end of 2018. The decision is one of a long list of updates to the company’s state radioactive material license approved […]

A second round of state depositions has been scheduled for January on the proposed sale of the retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Depositions were previously held in October as the Vermont Public Utility Commission considers whether to authorize transfer of ownership of Vermont Yankee from power company Entergy to nuclear decommissioning specialist NorthStar Group […]

The House of Representatives is expected early in the new year to vote on legislation aimed at advancing the long-planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Multiple informed sources said the floor vote on Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) “Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act” could happen in the first couple months of 2018, possibly […]

The Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff have both formally affirmed their intention to participate in any renewed adjudication of DOE’s license application for the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. The parties’ easily anticipated confirmations were included in responses submitted in recent weeks to an Oct. 27 request for information […]

The House Appropriations Committee this week unveiled a peculiar budget bill that would provide full-year fiscal 2018 appropriations for the Pentagon, but keep other federal agencies including the Department of Energy funded at prior-year levels through Jan. 19. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) introduced the bill Wednesday. The Department of Energy (DOE), like […]

The Port Hope Project in Ontario, Canada, has begun moving radioactively contaminated soil from a decades-old storage facility in the municipality into a new above-ground engineered mound for long-term disposal. The Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI) completed the first cell of the new disposal facility in late November and began trucking in waste from the […]