Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Thomas Gardiner The majority owner of the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) in California this fall plans official outreach to the potential new off-site home for its used reactor fuel, according to a senior executive. Late last month, Southern California Edison (SCE) announced the settlement of a lawsuit challenging its current plan to […]

Thomas Gardiner An amendment to a U.S. House spending bill passed last week added another layer of open opposition to plans for an underground nuclear waste repository across the border near Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada. The House on Sept. 14 approved government-wide appropriations legislation for fiscal 2018. Included in that bill was an amendment […]

Holtec International is committed to its plan to build and operate an interim storage facility for used nuclear fuel in New Mexico, no matter what route Congress eventually selects for managing the nation’s nuclear waste, according to the chairman of the organization partnering on the project. “If there is not a bill passed, Holtec and […]

The Energy Department’s Environmental Management Field Office at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico is studying potential strategies for dealing with combustible radioactive waste held at a private facility in West Texas. Between 300 and 400 drums of waste from Los Alamos have been kept at Waste Control Specialists storage complex in Andrews […]

Perma-Fix Environmental Services President and CEO Lou Centofanti on Monday formally stepped down from the top spot he has held for more than two decades, replaced by the company’s chief operating officer. Centofanti founded the Atlanta-based nuclear services and waste management provider in 1991, and served two extended stints as president and chief executive officer: […]

When ENERCON Federal Services last year became one of four teams bidding to dig a 16,000-foot deep borehole as a test for a potential means of radioactive waste disposal, Outreach Manager Francis “Chip” Cameron thought of it as a mere research effort. “We made the mistake of walking into this, thinking it was going to […]

By Thomas Gardiner Two Florida nuclear power plants shut down at least parts of their operations this week as Hurricane Irma approached and then tore through the state, but are once again operational. Florida Power and Light (FPL), which operates both plants, said public safety is a top priority. Both reactor units at the Turkey […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued five “substantive revisions” to the draft final rule revising the federal regulation on disposal of low-level radioactive waste. The updated rule will be published as a supplemental proposed rule for 90 days of public comment, according to a Sept. 8 memo from Annette Vietti-Cook, secretary of the commission, to […]

Nevada on Tuesday extended a contract with a Texas-based law firm to continue fighting the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository for another six months at a cost of roughly $1 million. Extending the contract of Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch & Lawrence, which also has an office in Washington, D.C., was one of many business items considered […]

The primary obstacle to opening Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a nuclear waste-disposal site could be Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the House’s top Energy Department appropriator said Thursday. “[I]n the Senate they have a two-vote Republican majority,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) said during the Energy Department-sponsored National Cleanup Workshop in Alexandria, Va. “One of […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has formally closed an August 2016 confirmatory action letter to Cameco Resources — indicating the U.S. uranium producer has met the agency’s expectations in addressing problems with its radioactive waste transport procedures. The NRC opened an investigation of Cameco Resources last year following the discovery that an intermodal container of barium sulfate sludge […]

By Thomas Gardiner The Nuclear Regulatory Commission member called “relatively unknown outside Capitol Hill” when he was confirmed for the post in 2014 was nominated Tuesday by the White House for another term. Jeff Baran joined the commission on Oct. 14, 2014, for a term that ends June 30, 2018. If approved by the Senate, […]

New York City has agreed to reimburse the Environmental Protection Agency $659,037 in response costs for the radioactively contaminated Wolff-Alport Superfund Site in Queens. The city owns part of the site, which encompasses the former property of the Wolff-Alport Chemical Co. and businesses, sidewalks, streets, and sewers in the surrounding area. The company, over a […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — Disposal of spent fuel is crucial to the domestic nuclear industry and will be among the Trump administration’s priorities in this sector, acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Nuclear Energy Edward McGinnis said Tuesday. “The back end is a key pillar of our nuclear sector,” McGinnis said in the opening plenary to the […]

SUMMERLIN, Nev. — The state of Nevada plans to submit 30 to 50 new contentions with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission against building a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, the state’s point man on the project said Wednesday. Should the NRC ultimately approve a license for construction of the underground storage site, state lawsuits […]

Workers have cut three of six planned holes in the Pile Fuel Cladding Silo, a nuclear waste storage facility at the United Kingdom’s Sellafield site, the U.K. National Decommissioning Authority announced Tuesday. The holes will be the means by which the waste material will be extracted from the silo on its way to permanent disposal. […]

The drive to restart the Energy Department’s application to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear-waste repository has stalled at least for another three months under a stopgap budget bill expected to become law soon. Both chambers of Congress by Friday had approved a continuing resolution that funds the federal government for […]

Power company Entergy has notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of its plan to withdraw up to $4.5 million from the trust fund for decommissioning of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. The disbursement from Bank of New York Mellon would occur 30 days after the date of the Aug. 15 letter from Entergy, which was posted […]

The state of Montana is considering a new set of regulations for management of technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive material (TENORM) waste. Buckhorn Energy’s Oaks Disposal Services site in eastern Montana is the state’s first and only operating TENORM disposal site. The facility opened in 2013 and in the last four years has received over […]

By Thomas Gardiner A settlement announced Monday could provide a path for more than 3.5 million pounds of nuclear waste from storage at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) along a California fault line to a more stable facility inland. The settlement agreement filed with the state Superior Court in San Diego brought potential […]

The state of Nevada objected to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s recently announced plan to this fall prepare to resume its review of the Energy Department’s application to license the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository in Nye County, Nev. The NRC on Aug. 8 said it would spend about $110,000 on “information-gathering activities” to gather input about […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in July spent just shy of $149,000 of its remaining balance from the Nuclear Waste Fund on activities related to licensing of the planned Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. Nearly all of the money — $143,744 – went toward knowledge management reports that provide technical data to assist in the review […]

Hurricane Harvey does not appear to have done any damage to the STURGIS barge, which is being decommissioned at the Port of Galveston in Texas, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Wednesday. “A team member was able to assess the Port earlier this week and noted no visible damage to the project site or […]

By Wayne Barber While there is much consolidation happening in the nuclear services and waste management industry these days, Perma-Fix Environmental Solutions is not looking to buy other businesses, President and CEO Louis Centofanti said recently. Perma-Fix is always interested in what is developing with industry mergers and acquisitions, Centofanti said Aug. 9 during his […]

Where many leaders in Nevada see only risk when it comes to the long-planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, Nye County Board of Commissioners Chairman Dan Schinhofen sees opportunity. Nye County is the poorest county in Nevada, with a median income more than $10,000 less than the statewide median, according to reporting earlier this year. […]

Holding company Valhi Inc. continues to seek new potential buyers for its Waste Control Specialists (WCS) subsidiary, but has not ruled out shutting down the business in the wake of its foiled acquisition by EnergySolutions. “We have in the past considered and evaluated various strategic alternatives with respect to our Waste Management Segment,” which consists […]