Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

The California Public Utilities Commission this week began eight days of evidentiary hearings on the request from Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to close the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant within a decade. The utility announced last June that it would not renew the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses for the plant’s two reactors when they […]

Waste Control Specialists on Tuesday requested a temporary suspension of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission review of the company’s license application for a consolidated interim spent nuclear fuel storage site in West Texas. The Dallas-based waste management provider said the licensing process currently is an “unsupportable” financial burden as it seeks to wrap up its merger with […]

The Omaha, Neb., Public Power District (OPPD) projects it will cost nearly $1.4 billion over five decades to maintain and then decommission the shuttered Fort Calhoun Station nuclear power plant, according to the utility’s newly released post-shutdown decommissioning activities report (PSDAR). The 43-year-old single-reactor facility permanently shut down last October, due to what OPPD described as […]

The contractor for cleanup of the former fast reactor research and development facility at Dounreay, Scotland, said last week it anticipates cutting up to 200 jobs over the coming year as decommissioning progresses. Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd. [DSRL] employs about 1,000 people on staff, roughly 10 to 15 percent of whom would be offered “voluntary […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has extended the public comment period for a license application to export 10,000 tons of radioactive material from Oak Ridge, Tenn., to Canada, after fielding concerns from a New York lawmaker. Massachusetts-based UniTech Services Group in October 2016 filed an application with the NRC to import and export the radioactive material from […]

NorthStar Group Services could wrap up decommissioning of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station by 2026. That’s according to a new post-shutdown decommissioning activities report (PSDAR), which the New York company submitted to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission this month. The updated timeline is nearly 50 years earlier than Vermont Yankee owner Entergy had estimated in […]

In a decision drawing criticism from activists and lawmakers, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday granted utility Entergy permission to forgo certain post-Fukushima safety measures at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts. The regulator ordered a series of safety improvements at U.S. reactor sites after the 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear […]

Waste Control Specialists CEO and President Rod Baltzer is defending the prospect for shipping nuclear waste to the company’s planned interim storage site in West Texas, pointing to clean safety records and extreme tests that ensure the durability of transportation casks. Transportation has been a highly contentious topic in WCS’ proposal to build and operate a […]

Federal agencies and Texas have entered into mediation over the state’s lawsuit demanding that the United States advance a permanent solution to storage of U.S. nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Meanwhile, the state of Nevada, a nuclear industry organization, and several utilities also want a say in the lawsuit, opposing some or all […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week notified Entergy that it is ready to carry out a full technical review of the utility’s request to transfer the license for the closed Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station to new planned owner NorthStar Group Services. The April 6 letter cites the completion of the agency’s acceptance review of the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has scheduled a May 2 conference with Energy Northwest to give the utility an opportunity to explain an incident in which it allegedly shipped low-level radioactive waste from the Columbia Generating Station in Washington state to a nearby disposal facility, where it was rejected for under-reported radiation levels. The NRC is […]

The Otero County Commission in southern New Mexico on Thursday tabled discussion on a resolution of opposition to hosting the Department of Energy’s planned deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test. According to the Alamogordo Daily News, the three-member commission is divided over the project. Commissioner Janet White is vehemently opposed, as she believes it lacks public support, while […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last month achieved another milestone in decommissioning of the radiologically contaminated STURGIS barge, but the schedule for completing the project has been pushed back to summer 2019. The cost of the work has also spiked by up to $12 million. The Army is dismantling and decommissioning the former World […]

One, and only one, of Nevada’s U.S. senators on Thursday asked the Senate Appropriations Committee not to include any funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in the stopgap spending bill Congress must produce this month to keep the federal government funded through September. “As you finalize legislation to continue funding for the Fiscal […]

A group of surfers wearing hazardous materials protection outfits were scheduled Friday afternoon to protest expansion of nuclear waste storage at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California. The protest is scheduled for 1 p.m. local time at the San Diego Superior Court Hall of Justice, according to a press announcement from the nongovernmental […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will license the nuclear waste interim storage facility Holtec International intends to build in southeastern New Mexico, company President and CEO Kris Singh proclaimed Wednesday, noting that the prospect is now a matter of political will. “We gave an exquisite and consequential gift to our nation,” Singh said of Holtec’s license […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has no immediate safety concerns at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, following yet another operational malfunction, but the regulator is assessing the situation with continued heightened scrutiny at the troubled plant, an agency official said Wednesday. The latest event at the 45-year-old Massachusetts facility occurred on March 31, when operators failed […]

The United Kingdom as of April 1, 2016, held 4.6 million cubic meters of radioactive waste and expects to produce at least another 170,000 cubic meters through the year 2125, according to the government’s latest accounting. The current and projected future stockpile of 4.77 million cubic meters, covering all wastes after packaging, does not include […]

A venture capitalist studying options for spent nuclear fuel storage and reprocessing in South Carolina said Wednesday his group will not pursue an interim storage license with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, instead shifting focus to new reactor design and reprocessing. Mike Stake, head of the Spent Fuel Reprocessing Group, originally told the NRC in July […]

Dallas County on Tuesday became the latest Texas jurisdiction to wade into the debate over plans to store up to 40,000 tons of spent nuclear fuel in the far west of the state. The county Commissioners Court approved a resolution expressing opposition to transportation of high-level waste, including used reactor fuel, by rail or road […]

The Canadian government this week requested that utility Ontario Power Generation provide even more information regarding its plans for a deep geologic repository near Lake Huron for storage of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste from three nuclear power plants. This latest development could further slow development of the facility, though by how long remains an open […]

The parties in a lawsuit seeking to block expansion of the dry-storage pad for spent fuel at the closed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) have agreed to settlement talks, plant majority owner Southern California Edison said Friday. The announcement came one week before the lawsuit from a California watchdog organization was scheduled for a hearing in San […]

The United Kingdom on Monday announced the early termination of the 2014 contract for management and decommissioning of its 12 Magnox nuclear sites, and a more than $120 million settlement with two companies that partnered on an unsuccessful bid for the work. An independent inquiry is also planned into the procurement process that led to […]

The Vermont Public Service Board has authorized 11 entities, from a labor union to several state agencies, to intervene in Entergy’s proposed sale of the shuttered Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station to a New York company for expedited decommissioning. The latest, and seemingly last, approved intervenor is the Abenaki Nation of Missisquoi, on March 24. […]

The Department of Energy has applied for a 20-year renewal of the license for storage in Idaho of debris from the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, according to documents made public Tuesday. The regulator issued the license for Three Mile Island Unit 2 (TMI-2) Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) on March 19, 1999. […]

In his first site visit as energy secretary, Rick Perry on Monday toured the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository site and afterward met with Gov. Brian Sandoval, a fierce opponent of reviving the project. The state and federal governments are gearing up for potential resumption of licensing activities with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the […]

Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of quarterly news summaries and analyses about President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. We’ll check in with one long, big-picture update every 25 days, with a regular flow of updates in between to keep you up to date on news affecting Department of Energy […]