Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Taxpayers in the United Kingdom are on the hook for up to £122 million in costs associated with a botched contract for decommissioning of the nation’s Magnox nuclear facilities, the U.K. National Audit Office said in a blistering report Wednesday. The government’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority announced in March that the £6.1 billion cleanup contract awarded in 2014 […]

Thomas Gardiner The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has unanimously voted to cut off a potential rule that would have required commercial nuclear facilities to promptly remediate radioactive contamination of surrounding ground, subsurface, and groundwater while still in operation. The three sitting commissioners voted in November and December 2016 to end the rulemaking. The notice was posted […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has received formal notice of Entergy’s intent to close its Palisades Power Plant in Michigan more than three years later than it had recently planned. Power operations will end in spring 2022, Charles Arnone, site vice president for Entergy Nuclear Operations, said in a Sept. 28 letter to the NRC. The […]

Thomas Gardiner The timeline for advancing the three nominees for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission remained murky Thursday, more than a week after the confirmation hearing for sitting Commissioner Jeff Baran. The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee has not scheduled a vote on giving Baran a full five-year term to June 30, 2023. Similarly, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a request to effectively suspend the requirement that the Indian Point Energy Center in New York state complete fresh assessments of earthquake and flooding risks. The regulator in 2012 required that all holders of nuclear power reactor licenses and construction permits conduct the evaluations in the wake of the […]

In congressional testimony Thursday, Energy Secretary Rick Perry stressed the importance of getting spent nuclear fuel away from the power plants that generated it, even if that means finding “alternatives” to a planned permanent repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. “I don’t want to get stuck that Yucca’s the only place that you can go,” […]

Thomas Gardiner The California Public Utilities Commission this week laid out an open-ended schedule for finally resolving the settlement over the premature retirement of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) after parties failed to reach an agreement by the August deadline. The ruling sets forth an expedited schedule for hearings and filings to speed what […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a supplemental inspection of the Columbia Generating Station in Washington state from Nov. 27 to Dec. 1 to ensure the nuclear power plant has adequately addressed errors that led to mislabeling of a radioactive waste shipment last year. The regulator in July issued a “white” finding, indicating low to moderate safety significance, […]

After Sunday’s mass shooting in Las Vegas, the author of a bill to update U.S. nuclear waste laws and clear the way for the Energy Department to build the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in the state said he is in no rush to get the measure to the floor. “In light of the tragedy, […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is preparing a new strategic plan to guide its operations from fiscal years 2018 to 2022. The is the seventh volume of the regulator’s strategic plan, which must be updated every four years, and is not a major departure from the document covering fiscal 2014 to 2018, according to an […]

Thomas Gardiner Federal legislation introduced this week could mean millions of dollars in relief for communities still housing spent reactor fuel at nuclear plants, according to two lawmakers from Illinois. The catalyst for the bill is the former Zion plant in Illinois, where used fuel remains in storage nearly two decades after the facility’s closure […]

Thomas Gardiner Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman John Barrasso (R-Wy.) had some tough questions for Jeff Baran during his confirmation hearing Wednesday for reappointment to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, drawing particular attention to the nominee’s position on the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository. Barrasso’s panel is the gatekeeper for Baran’s nomination for […]

A new buyer for Waste Control Specialists is expected to be announced in October, four months after a federal judge blocked a prior acquisition attempt, President and CEO Rod Baltzer said Monday. Baltzer mentioned the timeline during a presentation at the Nuclear Decommissioning and Used Fuel Strategy Summit in Charlotte, N.C., according to multiple industry […]

An AREVA Nuclear Materials-NorthStar Group Services joint venture no longer expects to seal the deal in 2017 on its first acquisitions of nuclear plants for decommissioning, an executive said this week. The two companies in February announced the formation of Accelerated Decommissioning Partners, which would buy closed nuclear plants and take charge of decommissioning, site […]

The federal government is likely to rack up tens of billions of dollars in liability over the Department of Energy’s decades-long failure to meet its legal mandate to build a permanent home for spent fuel from U.S. commercial power reactors, lawmakers and panelists said Tuesday during a congressional hearing on U.S. nuclear waste management. More […]

Thomas Gardiner The Palisades Power Plant in Michigan will remain operational more than three years longer than planned, to spring 2022, owner and operator Entergy announced Thursday following the mutual termination of plans for state utility Consumers Energy to buy the companies’ power purchase agreement. The announcement comes less than a week after the Michigan […]

Thomas Gardiner Degrading safety equipment in the spent nuclear fuel pool at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts forced plant owner and operator Entergy to devise a plan to more than double its current number of used fuel assemblies in dry cask storage. The current storage situation, in which close to 3,000 spent fuel […]

Canada’s Port Hope Project is scheduled by the end of November to complete the first of four storage cells of an above-ground engineered mound for storage of radioactive waste, with transport and storage due to start early in 2018. The Port Hope Project, one part of a broader radioactive waste cleanup program covering two municipalities […]

Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment hopes to persuade lawmakers to change state law to increase its ability to regulate disposal of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) waste in state landfills. The state’s 1963 Radiation Control Act prohibits the Colorado government from developing regulations for management of TENORM until the U.S. Environmental […]

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has rescheduled for next week its confirmation hearing on Jeff Baran’s reappointment to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Baran will now appear before the committee at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Room 406 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, alongside four nominees for assistant administrator positions at the Environmental Protection […]

The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) on Friday said it had filed an official notice of termination for the Cavendish Fluor Partnership’s contract to decommission the nation’s 12 Magnox reactor sites. The contract will now end on Aug. 31, 2019, nine years earlier than planned when it was awarded in 2014. Cavendish Fluor will […]

The Energy Department said Tuesday that it had awarded a $19.3 million task order to Waste Control Specialists for continued storage in West Texas of transuranic and Greater-Than-Class-C waste from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. The Dallas-based waste storage specialist said the agreement includes research into ultimate disposal of the waste at […]

Lawmakers are piling on to co-sponsor a House bill that would smooth the way to open Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear waste repository. This week alone, 32 additional representatives associated themselves with Rep. John Shimkus’ (R-Ill.) Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2017 (H.R.3053): a 45-page bill officially introduced in the […]

A subcommittee of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards met Thursday to discuss the licensing progress for Northwest Medical Isotopes’ (NWMI) planned production facility. Northwest is one of several U.S. companies aiming to provide a domestic supply of molybdenum-99, which decays into technetium-99m, an isotope used in a variety of forms in […]

The Vermont Public Service Department has scheduled a number of depositions as part of the state’s ongoing review of the sale of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The sale of the shuttered facility from power company Entergy to NorthStar Group Services for decommissioning requires approval both from the Vermont Public Utility Commission and the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has requested additional information from the Department of Energy regarding its request for a two decade-year extension to the license for storage of waste from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant at the Idaho National Laboratory. The Energy Department currently has NRC authorization to hold waste from the Pennsylvania plant’s […]

Officials from the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce are headed to Washington, D.C., next week to visit with Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.): architect of a bill that would help clear the way for the federal government to turn Yucca Mountain in Nevada into a permanent storage facility for nuclear waste. The Las Vegas Chamber — like […]