Publications: Nuclear Energy & Radwaste Monitor

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, President Donald Trump’s pick for energy secretary, did not rule out the prospect of Nevada storing high-level radioactive waste during his Senate confirmation hearing Thursday, but he said he would explore alternatives. The Obama administration in 2009 cancelled plans to bury high-level waste and spent nuclear fuel at a repository […]

The Donald Trump administration could save a lot of money by building a deep geologic repository just for Cold War nuclear waste, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said here Wednesday after his farewell speech to the Beltway press corps. The key, Moniz told reporters after prepared remarks at the National Press Club, is whether the incoming […]

French multinational nuclear company AREVA on Wednesday announced the formation of a new subsidiary to manage its operations in the United States. The move is part of the troubled company’s broader restructuring, in which it is focusing on nuclear fuel cycle work and selling off its reactor business. Sam Shakir, an executive with AREVA for […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday approved Entergy’s request for additional time to comply with a safety equipment update at the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York. The NRC ordered a series of design improvements for American nuclear reactors following the 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in […]

Ken Grumski, vice president of federal services at Waste Control Specialists, on Wednesday announced he is leaving the company to take an executive position with SECUR LLC. In an email to dozens of industry and government officials, Grumski said Friday will be his last day at the Dallas-based company that operates a complex near Andrews, Texas, for storage of […]

After roughly a year traveling around the country and gathering public input on nuclear waste management strategy, Department of Energy officials on Thursday released an initial version of the agency’s consent-based siting process. The draft document outlines the department’s strategy in establishing the locations for nuclear waste storage and disposal facilities. Consent-based siting — the Obama administration’s strategy for managing […]

Nevada lawmakers and a Republican congressman this week introduced dueling bills concerning federal plans for permanent storage of U.S. nuclear waste. Two other Republican congressman also introduced a bill that would allow the Energy Department to contract private nuclear waste storage companies. The Obama administration in 2009 canceled the planned Yucca Mountain geologic repository in Nevada, […]

Entergy said Monday it will shut down its Indian Point Energy Center by 2021, citing declining revenue and increased operating costs at the New York nuclear plant, which has been at the center of a controversy concerning bolt degradation. The utility plans to shut down the Unit 2 reactor in April 2020, followed by Unit […]

John Kotek, a key leader in the Energy Department’s consent-based siting process for nuclear waste storage, has left his post to join the Nuclear Energy Institute as vice president for policy development and public affairs, the nuclear industry’s lobbying arm announced on Jan. 6. Kotek started in his new position on Monday. “I couldn’t be more […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Dec. 29 issued a white inspection finding at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, confirming that operator Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) failed to “adequately maintain the (plant’s) emergency core cooling system.” Located about 12 miles southwest of San Luis Obispo, Diablo Canyon is the last operating nuclear plant in California […]

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy said Tuesday it has won a three-year contract to support disassembly of two reactors at Sweden’s Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant. The work, expected to start in January and wrap up by the end of 2019, involves segmentation of the reactor pressure vessel internals for reactor Units 1 and 2 at the […]

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) maintains that a location near Lake Huron is the best for the company’s planned deep geologic repository (DGR) for low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste, after considering alternate options as requested by Canada’s top environmental official. The Ontario government-owned corporation announced Tuesday that it has made its case to Canadian Environment and […]

U.S. Eighty-four of the 99 Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed nuclear plants are now in compliance with new emergency response safety equipment orders the agency has implemented through its Fukushima Lessons Learned initiative, according to NRC spokesman Scott Burnell. Compliance is up from 70 percent in September, when the agency explained in documents that it anticipated the […]

A lawsuit seeking to reverse the controversial San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station settlement agreement is moot, given that state regulators have addressed issues that led to the unbalanced deal, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) argued in a court filing Tuesday. SONGS majority owner Southern California Edison (SCE) retired the plant’s unit 1 in 1992, and […]

Following the leak of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission email disclosing troubling inspection findings at the downgraded Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, Massachusetts leaders are demanding a public meeting with the regulator to discuss safety at the plant. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, the state’s two senators and nine representatives, and a long list of local lawmakers penned a […]

By the time the public comment period closes on the Energy Department’s draft plan for a Defense Waste Repository to house nuclear waste from military programs, the Donald Trump administration may already have decided if it wants DOE to pursue the project. While routinely delivered late in a new president’s first year in office, the […]

U.S. Exelon has withdrawn filings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking to cease operation of the Clinton Power Station and the Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station, following Illinois’ passage of the Future Energy Jobs Bill. The withdrawals are more a technicality in what has already been confirmed. Exelon had been threatening the close the struggling […]

Southern California Edison announced Tuesday that it has selected an AECOM-EnergySolutions partnership as its general contractor for about $1 billion in dismantlement work for the $4.4 billion decommissioning of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). The news follows a 10-month selection process in which a Bechtel-Westinghouse team and Team Holtec also competed for the […]

A request that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission cancel its review of Waste Control Specialists’ application to build and operate a consolidated interim storage facility for nuclear waste in West Texas is outside the scope of the current proceedings, according to the NRC. Beyond Nuclear, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, Public Citizen, and the Sustainable Energy […]

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of experts recently completed a safety evaluation ahead of France’s expected licensing decision in 2018 for the Cigéo deep geological repository, which will house the country’s high-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste. The French National Radioactive Waste Management Agency (ANDRA) is leading the €25 billion ($26.1 billion) program to […]

The Department of Energy announced Monday that it is moving forward with proposals from four companies for Phase 1 of the department’s deep borehole nuclear waste storage field test. California-based AECOM is exploring a site in Pecos County, Texas; Pennsylvania-based TerranearPMC a site in Otero County, N.M.; Georgia-based Enercon is looking at Nara Visa, N.M.; […]

The Nuclear Energy Institute in a recent memo to President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has asked that the Energy Department complete the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain geologic repository in Nevada, and to continue working to establish interim nuclear waste storage locations. NEI, the nuclear industry’s lobbying arm, urged DOE to fulfill its Nuclear […]

RadWaste Monitor will not be published next week in observance of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Friday, Jan. 6, 2017.

Two antinuclear groups this week continued to call for a Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearing concerning power company Entergy’s request for additional time to comply with post-Fukushima safety equipment updates at the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York. The NRC ordered a series of design improvements for American nuclear reactors following the 2011 […]

A group of 21 prominent South Australians is calling on elected officials to continue developing a controversial concept for burying international nuclear waste in the region’s arid environment. Those signing the open letter issued this week include Adelaide Football Club Chairman Rob Chapman, Coopers Brewery chief Tim Cooper, former Gerard Industries Pty Ltd. Chairman Robert Gerard, […]

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Tuesday ordered utility Southern California Edison (SCE) to re-confer with interested parties to potentially adjust the $4.7 billion settlement over the premature closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 2013. CPUC announced in April that it was reopening the settlement case, which ordered that state ratepayers […]