Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Staff at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission aims by the end of February to determine whether to transition to a full technical review of Holtec International’s application to build a facility for interim storage of spent fuel from commercial nuclear reactors. The pending completion of the NRC acceptance review of the 2017 application comes as […]

French nuclear fuel cycle company New AREVA officially has a new name as of Tuesday: Orano. Orano is the result of a corporate restructuring AREVA initiated in 2016 that late last year resulted in the sale of the company’s nuclear power business to French utility EDF and other entities. What was left was almost entirely […]

The U.S. Department of Energy remains committed to meeting its legal mandate for permanent disposal of spent nuclear reactor fuel, but is waiting on Congress to provide the funding needed to push that program forward, a senior DOE official said Tuesday. Resolving the decades-long impasse on the disposition of what is now more than 75,000 […]

By John Stang The Vermont Public Utility Commission (PUC) this week postponed a status conference on talks over the sale of the retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant to Feb. 5 because negotiations are still unresolved. The PUC had scheduled the status conference for Thursday with representatives from plant owner Entergy, prospective buyer NorthStar Group […]

Two informed industry sources said this week that multinational waste management company Veolia has completed its purchase of Piketon, Ohio-based Wastren Advantage for an undisclosed sum. The sources said the deal closed on Jan. 16 following federal approval of the U.S. Department of Energy’s foreign-owned, control, or influence (FOCI) analysis. News of the pending deal […]

By John Stang Power companies Entergy and NextEra Energy have left the Nuclear Energy Institute, the lobbying arm of the nuclear power industry, for reasons not made clear this week. Entergy and NEI cited business-related causes for the departures, but declined to elaborate. “While we will no longer be a member of NEI, we will continue […]

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) said Wednesday it plans by Jan. 30 to request a 90-day extension to its rulemaking on management of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) waste. The request, which will be submitted to Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton, is intended to give DEQ additional time to consider […]

The Vermont Public Utility Commission (PUC) on Tuesday canceled a public hearing and set of evidentiary hearings in its review of the proposed sale of the retired Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The move is intended to give the various parties to the process time to review and discuss a revised financial assurance proposal for […]

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 […]