Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

The Vermont Public Service Board order that approved the certificate of public good for a second dry cask storage pad for the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, as reported on July 21 by RadWaste Monitor, was issued in June 2016 rather than June 2017. The ExchangeMonitor regrets the error.

Swedish nuclear technology company Studsvik said a deal inked Monday should open the door for deployment of its fluid bed steam reforming (FBSR) radioactive waste treatment system at multiple nuclear power plants in China. A new framework agreement gives Beijing Dynatech Co. the exclusive license to employ the technology in the nation, according to a […]

The Vermont Public Utility Commission this week issued a new schedule that extends by several months its review of the planned sale of the shuttered Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station from owner Entergy to decommissioning specialist NorthStar Group Services. The schedule updates specific dates for document filings and hearings through the week of Jan. 29, […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in June spent $17,699 of its remaining available Nuclear Waste Fund balance contesting a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas over the future of the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. In total, the regulator used $145,842 of its unexpended Nuclear Waste Fund money last month, according to the latest update […]

A local advisory board this week voiced its opposition to using the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina for interim storage of nuclear waste, but could not come to agreement on a request for DOE to prohibit shipments to the facility of highly enriched uranium from Germany. The Energy Department should […]

By Wayne Barber It appears increasingly likely that the two remaining Trump administration nominees to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission won’t get a vote by the full U.S. Senate until this fall – at which time their confirmation might be tied to a potential second term for Commissioner Jeff Baran. On July 12, the Senate Committee […]

By Wayne Barber The House of Representatives on Thursday approved fiscal 2018 appropriations legislation that would provide more than $939.1 million for Nuclear Regulatory Commission salaries and expenses. The NRC funding is included within the energy appropriations section of the so-called “mini-bus” bill, which also covers defense, legislative, military construction, and veterans affairs operations. It […]

Edison International is “intellectually open” to revising the $4.7 billion settlement for the early closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) that best serves its customer and ownership base, President and CEO Pedro Pizarro said Thursday. Speaking to financial analysts during the company’s quarterly earnings call, Pizarro also made it clear the utility […]

Holtec International announced Thursday that it had hired a longtime nuclear energy industry executive as its new president and chief operating officer, assuming some of the responsibilities held by current President and CEO Kris Singh. William Levis will start work at the New Jersey-based energy technology company in October, according to a Holtec press release. […]

By Wayne Barber Environmental services and waste management provider US Ecology said Thursday that its operating and net incomes dropped in the second quarter, on a year-over-year basis, even as company-wide revenue spiked by nearly $4 million. Revenue landed at $126.1 million for the quarter ended June 30, 2017, up from $122.4 million in the […]

The House of Representatives has approved a fiscal 2018 Energy Department budget that would allow the agency to restart its application to license Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., as a permanent nuclear-waste repository — something the Senate’s corresponding spending plan would prohibit. The House voted 235 to 192, on a highly partisan line, to […]

By Wayne Barber The U.S. Court of Federal Claims continues to be an active venue for nuclear power companies to seek reimbursement from the U.S. government for the Energy Department’s ongoing breach of its legal obligation to take possession of spent nuclear fuel from commercial reactors. The Federal Circuit held in 2000 that the department […]

Sen. Dean Heller’s (R-Nev.) Las Vegas office was burglarized Sunday morning, the Las Vegas Sun newspaper reported. An aide to Heller confirmed the apparent break-in but declined to comment further about the ongoing investigation by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. The Sun, citing a source, said the burglar or burglars might have left a […]

The University of Arkansas hopes Congress will soon come through with the last $10.1 million needed to complete cleanup of the long-disused Southwest Experimental Fast Oxide Reactor (SEFOR) facility. The university aims in October to begin the third and final phase of the nearly decade-long remediation program, which would involve removing the plant reactor and […]

The U.S. Transportation Department would receive the $3 million it requested for fiscal 2018 to continue storing a retired nuclear-powered freighter in Baltimore Harbor as part of a $56.5-billion Transportation, Housing and Urban Development spending bill the House Appropriations Committee approved Monday. The merchant ship NS Savannah, now moored at Canton Marine Terminal’s Pier 13, was launched in […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of Wednesday had not received word on whether Waste Control Specialists intends to move ahead with its suspended application for a spent nuclear fuel storage site in the wake of the company’s foiled merger with rival EnergySolutions. “We have not heard of any change from WCS,” NRC spokesman David McIntyre […]

By Wayne Barber The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday easily passed a fiscal 2018 energy and water spending bill that includes a $25 million cut to the budget request for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The nuclear industry regulator requested $952 million for the budget year beginning Oct. 1, encompassing all salaries and expenses and funding […]

The Energy Department would get no money to turn Yucca Mountain in Nye County, Nev., into a permanent nuclear-waste disposal site under a roughly $30-billion agency budget the Senate Appropriations Committee approved Thursday. The committee signaled its intention in draft legislation that leaked earlier in the week before appropriators released the language of their bill and […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a “white” safety finding to the Columbia Generating Station in Washington state after completing an evaluation of a waste shipping incident to US Ecology on leased land at the Hanford Site. Energy Northwest, operator of the nuclear power plant near the city of Richland, was notified of the decision on […]

NorthStar Group Services is filling out its team for decommissioning of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, even as it faces continued questions about its capacity to carry off the project. The New York City-based decommissioning specialist hopes by the first quarter of 2018 to secure state and federal regulatory approval to acquire the plant that […]

The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday advanced a $37.6 billion energy and water funding bill that would give the Nuclear Regulatory Commission slightly more money than it requested for fiscal 2018. The appropriations legislation passed on a voice vote following a markup session that featured no discussion of the nuclear industry regulator. The full House […]

By Wayne Barber The Environmental Protection Agency continues to believe that people living and working near the West Lake Landfill Superfund Site in Missouri are not being exposed to radiological contaminant levels that pose health concerns. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported this week that a stormwater sample, collected April 30 following a period of heavy […]

By Wayne Barber The Trump administration’s remaining two nominees to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were approved Wednesday, with significant Democratic resistance, by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. David Wright, an energy consultant and former head of the South Carolina Public Service Commission and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, squeaked by […]

The federal judge who blocked the merger of EnergySolutions and Waste Control Specialists accepted the U.S. government’s argument that the deal would drastically reduce competition in the market for disposal of low-level radioactive waste (LLRW), according to the court’s newly released opinion. Judge Sue L. Robinson, of U.S. District Court for Delaware, issued the order […]

By Wayne Barber Computer systems used in management of spent fuel at U.S. nuclear power plants are not connected to the Internet or business networks, a key line of defense against cyber threats, representatives for industry and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said this week. Nonetheless, a U.S. senator is seeking information from the NRC and […]

Lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee this week approved a fiscal 2018 energy budget that “fully supports” the Department of Energy’s plan to create a permanent nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada — though in a slightly different way than the White House imagined. “The Committee fully supports the Administration’s position to move forward […]

Adams Natural Resources Consulting Services of Carson City, Nev., will aid Nevada’s legal efforts to oppose the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste repository for another year, under a contract modification approved Wednesday. Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt, Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) and Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske approved the extension during a state Board of […]