Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday it has been years since any U.S. company has expressed interest in developing commercial spent fuel reprocessing or recycling capabilities. “I think in 2009, the agency received some expressions of interest from potential developers of reprocessing capability in the United States,” NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki told members […]

Colorado-based CH2M on Friday officially became a wholly owned subsidiary of Dallas-based Jacobs Engineering, CH2M announced in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. More details about the merger will be disclosed Monday, CH2M said at press time. CH2M shareholders voted Wednesday to approve the buyout. The preliminary results of the special meeting […]

The state of Colorado is restricting disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) waste within its borders while it advances potential legislation to regulate the material. Under Colorado’s 1963 Radiation Control Act the state is prohibited from developing regulations for managing TENORM prior to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency taking the same action […]

The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository will stay on hold and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will escape a proposed budget cut until at least Dec. 22, under a short-term continuing resolution Congress approved on Thursday. At deadline Friday for RadWaste Monitor, President Donald Trump was expected to sign the stopgap budget bill before midnight, when federal […]

The current and prospective owner of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant believe they can count on additional legal wins against the Department of Energy to help finance decommissioning of the shuttered facility. Power company Entergy and nuclear decommissioning specialist NorthStar Group Services also say they should not need a new Nuclear Regulatory Commission exemption […]

The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled on Dec. 14 to vote on the proposal for closure of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant within a decade. Owner Pacific Gas & Electric in 2016 joined a number of labor and environmental groups in issuing a joint proposal under which the San Luis Obispo County facility’s […]

Waste Control Specialists is still seeing interest from other potential buyers in the wake of its foiled merger with rival EnergySolutions, a company spokesman said last week. “People and entities are still looking at it and we anticipate there will be new ownership at some point,” WCS spokesman Chuck McDonald said by telephone on Dec. […]

There was no word this week on when the three nominees to fill out the Nuclear Regulatory Commission might get confirmation votes from the U.S. Senate. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Oct. 25 sent the Trump administration’s Sept. 5 nomination of sitting Commissioner Jeff Baran for a floor vote by the full […]

A lawmaker from New York state has introduced legislation aimed at easing the way for placing spent fuel and high-level radioactive waste into interim storage until a permanent repository is built. The “Removing Nuclear Waste from our Communities Act of 2017” is one of three bills filed in November by Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) that […]

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps in 2015 denied that the California Coastal Commission had the authority to issue a permit for oceanside storage of additional spent reactor fuel from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), a newly disclosed letter shows. In the Oct. 1, 2015, letter to commission environmental scientist Joseph Street, Navy […]

Thomas Gardiner While the U.S. government seeks a permanent home for tens of thousands of tons of spent nuclear reactor fuel, the waste can safely be stored at the power plants that generated it, the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said recently. “The NRC has concluded that storage of spent fuel at reactor sites […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is weighing a request from the Omaha Public Power District that would exempt the utility from certain emergency planning requirements for the recently retired Fort Calhoun nuclear plant in Nebraska. The Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) says now that Fort Calhoun is permanently shut down and defueled it poses less risk […]

Thomas Gardiner The U.S. Court of Federal Claims in November awarded utility Duke Energy $68.5 million in damages over the Department of Energy’s failure to remove spent nuclear fuel from some four nuclear power plants. The court ruling cites the Energy Department’s actions as a partial breach of contract with Duke subsidiaries Duke Energy Progress […]

Northwest Medical Isotopes (NWMI) could be just a few months away from securing approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a plant for production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99. “Ninety-nine percent of the work is done, so now you’re just going through the procedural process in getting it approved,” NWMI Chief Operating Officer […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said its rulemaking for nuclear power reactor decommissioning will address both physical and cyber security, along with six other operational areas. The list is included in the final regulatory basis for the rulemaking, posted Nov. 20 on the NRC website. The commission in December 2014 mandated the rulemaking, which is aimed […]

The U.S. Department of Energy has thrown its support behind limiting compliance to 1,000 years in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s update to its Part 61 rule on storage of low-level radioactive waste (LLRW). “DOE is fully supportive of moving to a single 1,000-year time of compliance and sees no unintended consequences,” according to comments submitted […]

Congress has received the Department of Energy’s report on options for disposal of Greater-Than-Class C and Class-C-Like Waste, setting the stage for legislative approval of the department’s preferred alternative to potentially divide the material between commercial sites and DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. The Energy Department projects the United States will hold […]

Thomas Gardiner While southeastern New Mexico has been a hub for nuclear business, and its leaders eagerly pursue new opportunities, there is some pushback against advancing plans to build an interim nuclear waste storage facility in the region. “We have a rather long nuclear history in New Mexico, we have a nuclear cluster,” said John […]

Thomas Gardiner The owner of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station (PNPS) in Massachusetts and nuclear watchdogs are questioning the effectiveness of state legislation that would force the company to pay the state $25 million annually for each year decommissioning of the facility remains unfinished after a half-decade. The bill was filed in January in the […]

RadWaste Monitor will not be published on Friday, Nov. 24, in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 1.

AECOM leadership said Monday it sees great potential in the nuclear plant decommissioning market in the United States, Canada, Japan, and elsewhere. The global engineering and infrastructure company is already muscling into the business. In December 2016, an AECOM-EnergySolutions team landed the roughly $1 billion general contract business for decommissioning the San Onofre Nuclear Generating […]

Thomas Gardiner A citizens’ organization in California is proposing an alternate means for long-term storage of spent fuel that would take the waste away from nuclear power reactors without necessarily relying on the Department of Energy building a permanent repository. Citizens’ Oversight says its proposal would protect key water resources found near many nuclear plants […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services on Nov. 10 indicated it is moving ahead with testing of technology for treating low-activity radioactive waste from the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, while acknowledging funding challenges facing its medical isotope program. The Atlanta-based based nuclear services and waste management specialist offered the update in a 10-Q filing with the U.S. […]

The Texas Low-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal Compact Commission has proposed a new rule intended to give it more information about imports of such waste into the state. The update to the Texas Administrative Code would cover most all low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) imported into the state that is not destined for disposal at the “Compact […]

International Isotopes on Tuesday reported that sales grew by nearly $500,000 in the third quarter of 2017, but noted that its net loss also rose by over $1 million. Sales totaled $1.9 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, up 35 percent from just over $1.4 million in the same period of 2016, according to […]

The prophesied pre-Thanksgiving vote on Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) Yucca Mountain policy overhaul appears unlikely now, with Congress set to break for the holiday and appropriators bristling that the bill infringes on their power of the purse. The House was not in session Friday. Both the House and Senate are scheduled to be in recess […]

A watchdog group in California on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit aimed at preventing storage of spent nuclear fuel at the closed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The lawsuit, from La Mesa-based Public Watchdogs, comes just months after a settlement to resolve a prior legal challenge against expansion of the plant’s dry storage pad […]